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Schlieren photography of gallstones and models of gallstones made from amorphous substances has demonstrated that acoustic shadowing depends primarily on the orientation of the surface of the stone in relation to the sound beam, not the composition of the stone.

Forty-three patients who had undergone direct-contrast ventriculography were submitted to intravenous digital subtraction ventriculography and first-pass radionuclide ventriculography to compare the left ventricular ejection fractions obtained by each method. Ejection fractions were calculated by the area-length method from the direct contrast ventriculograms, by both area-length and videodensitometric methods from the digital subtraction ventriculograms, and by count densitometry from the radionuclide ventriculograms. Satisfactory correlations were found between values obtained by the late mask resubtracted videodensitometric method and the radionuclide method (r = 0.85) and by the digital ventriculographic area length method and direct-contrast method (r = 0.88). Videodensitometric methods may be an alternative way to estimate left ventricular ejection fractions accurately without reliance on geometric assumptions about the shape of the left ventricular cavity.

SummaryIn this report concepts of resolution and sensitivity that appear compatible with both moving-detector scanners and stationary-detector devices have been developed. While the sensitivities measured from various sources have been de-scribed, plane sensitivity has been selected as the one most useful for system comparison. The line spread function and the modulation transfer function derived from it have been selected to provide the description of the resolution of the system or for any component of the system. Both theoretical and practical considerations of the application of these concepts to moving-detector scanners and stationary-detector devices are discussed.

Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of the chest was performed in 33 patients; 28 patients had a variety of malignant tumors and five had benign processes involving the pleura, chest wall, mediastinum, hila , and pulmonary parenchyma. In addition, in vivo T1 and T2 calculations were performed on 17 malignancies and 2 benign processes. Of the 18 patients examined with both MR and computed tomography (CT), 15 MR examinations were considered to be as diagnostic as CT in demonstrating abnormalities. In two cases, CT was superior to MR. In one case without adequate vascular opacification on CT, MR was superior in differentiating a mass from pulmonary artery. It is concluded that, with current technology without respiratory or cardiac gating, MR offers little improvement in diagnosis over contrast-enhanced CT. Furthermore, it does not appear possible to predict tissue type based on T1 and T2 measurements because of a wide overlap in these values.

Most magnetic resonance imaging has used body orthogonal axes with the Z axis placed along the length of the body and the X and Y axes at right angles to the body. This orientation is not optimum for the heart; visualization of sections along the short and long cardiac axes would best define cardiac structural detail and functional status. The new orientation was accomplished by selection of electronic angulation of the magnetic fields for each subject rather than by attempting to approximate the cardiac axes by altering the position of the patient. This technique improved visualization of comparative wall segments, valvular structures, and the true four-chamber view of the heart, and also gave the best visualization of the pericardium. In addition, more accurate estimates of chamber size and myocardial mass can be made from the short-axis orientation, since the sections are orthogonal to the myocardium.

Gallium-67 scintigraphy is helpful in the evaluation of inflammatory, respiratory diseases. Single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) provides three-dimensional tomographic reconstruction of radioisotope distribution in the body. The addition of SPECT to gallium-67 scanning in 27 patients demonstrated an improvement in the sensitivity for detecting the presence and extent of interstitial occupational lung disease. This technique may provide earlier detection of parenchymal lung changes than can the chest x-ray and planar scanning in some patients with asbestosis. Findings in six patients with asbestosis are reported.