The guidelines summarize the views of the Paediatric Committee of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine. They should be taken in the context of "good practice" of nuclear medicine and of any national rules, which may apply to nuclear medicine examinations. The recommendations of these guidelines cannot be applied to all patients in all practice settings. The guidelines should not be deemed inclusive of all proper procedures or exclusive of other procedures reasonably directed to obtaining the same results.

Nuclear medicine has a central role in the diagnosis, staging, response assessment and long-term follow-up of neuroblastoma, the most common solid extracranial tumour in children. These EANM guidelines include updated information on I-mIBG, the most common study in nuclear medicine for the evaluation of neuroblastoma, and on PET/CT imaging withF-FDG, F-DOPA andGa-DOTA peptides. These PET/CT studies are increasingly employed in clinical practice. Indications, advantages and limitations are presented along with recommendations on study protocols, interpretation of findings and reporting results.

Our data suggest that the pattern consisting of hypointense and hyperintense T2 changes within the putamen is a highly specific MRI sign of MSA, while hypointensity alone remains a sensitive, but nonspecific MRI sign of MSA. In clinically doubtful cases, the appearance of a hypointense and hyperintense signal pattern on MRI makes the diagnosis of PD very unlikely, while hypointense signal changes alone do not exclude idiopathic PD.

We assessed the value of three‐compartment magnetic resonance (MR) wrist arthrography in comparison with non‐enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the evaluation of 13 individual wrist ligaments in 35 patients with refractory wrist pain. In 20 of these patients MR findings were correlated with the findings from multiportal wrist arthroscopy. For MR imaging (1.5‐T magnet) a three‐dimensional volume acquisition with a gradient‐recalled echo sequence and 0.6–1.0 mm effective slice thickness was used. The delineation of individual wrist ligaments was rated as “good” in 10% of non‐enhanced MR and 90% of MR arthrography images. Ligament evaluation was possible with high diagnostic confidence in 11% by non‐enhanced MR imaging and 90% by MR arthrography. With wrist arthroscopy as the standard of reference, average sensitivities/specificities/accuracies for the diagnosis of full‐thickness ligamentous defects were 0.81/0.75/0.77 for non‐enhanced MR imaging and 0.97/0.96/0.96 for MR arthrography. Our findings suggest that MR arthrography is more accurate than standard MRI in delineating and evaluating the ligaments of the wrist.J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 1999;9:468–474. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

In the assessment of neuroblastoma lesions in pediatric patients, MRI showed a higher sensitivity and MIBG scintigraphy a higher specificity. However, integrated imaging showed an increase in both sensitivity and specificity.

Summary: Purpose: To acquire normative data of the hippocampus and its postnatal growth in SO children (age, 1 month to IS years) without epilepsy.Methods: Morphometry of the hippocampus was carried out by using a spoiled FLASH 3D sequence (sagittal orientation), whereas the volume of the brain was assessed with a TIweighted spin-echo sequence (transverse orientation). The volume of the hippocampus and the brain was determined by following Cavalieri's principle. Growth curves of the brain and hippocampus were fitted to a nonlinear Boltzmann sigmoidal equation.Results: lntra-tinterobserver coefficient of variation was 2.01 4.9% for hippocampal volume measurements and 2.0/2. I % for brain volumetry. A significant difference in volume was noted between the right and left hippocampus (p < 0.001), with the right side being larger on average by 0. I0 cc. Correlation coefficients of growth curves ranged between 0.71 and 0.94. Growth curves demonstrated a faster development of the hippocampus in girls. A steeper slope of hippocampal growth as compared with brain growth was found in girls, whereas in boys, the slope of brain growth was steeper.Conclusions: Our findings will be of help in evaluating vulnerable phases of the hippocampal formation with accelerated growth, thereby leading to a better understanding of the development of hippocampal sclerosis in early childhood.

This prospective multicenter trial of (123)I-mIBG scintigraphy documents high sensitivity and specificity of this imaging technique in patients with both newly diagnosed and previously treated neuroblastoma.

No abstract