sodium-pertechnetate-tc-99m and Death--Sudden

Results from variance electrocardiography, displaying the wide-band, phase-locked electrical micro-variability during the depolarization phase, was analysed versus clinical data, echocardiographic structural and functional variables and myocardial scintigraphic findings in 174 elite orienteers compared with 37 age-matched elite endurance athletes and 50 age-matched, healthy medical students. PCA analysis identified a subgroup of five orienteers deviating from the rest of the study group and both control groups with regard to their QRS amplitude variability. No correlations were found between pathology by medical history or any of the echocardiographic and scintigraphic variables or by the variance electrocardiographic aberrations in any of the groups studied.

Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Arrhythmias, Cardiac; Death, Sudden; Echocardiography; Electrocardiography; Female; Heart; Humans; Male; Physical Endurance; Radionuclide Imaging; Radiopharmaceuticals; Sodium Pertechnetate Tc 99m; Sports Medicine

Brain scintigraphy was performed for differential diagnosis of suspected subdural hemorrhage in a 79-year-old woman. Planar pertechnetate (99mTcO4-) brain scan with AP, PA, lateral and vertex projections was planned. The procedure was started with AP-projection, continuing with lateral projections. After these images the patient was determined dead and the planned scannings were aborted. There was a clear difference in the intracranial uptake (choroid plexuses) in the lateral views as well as in the uptake in the venous sinuses. The findings in the AP view were normal and no signs of subdural hemorrhage were observed. The patient died during a routine nuclear medicine procedure, and cessation of intracranial circulation was observable on 99mTcO4- scans; the lack of uptake in cerebral sinuses confirmed the lack of intracerebral flow. In this rare case, brain death could be timed accurately using a static nuclear medicine procedure. Autopsy confirmed sudden brain circulatory disorders and general arteriosclerosis.

Topics: Aged; Brain; Brain Death; Cerebrovascular Circulation; Death, Sudden; Fatal Outcome; Female; Forensic Medicine; Hematoma, Subdural; Humans; Radionuclide Imaging; Radiopharmaceuticals; Sodium Pertechnetate Tc 99m