Monitoraggio Ambulatoriale della Funzione Ventricolare Sinistra con Sistema di Rilevazione Radionuclidico

The recent development of new radionuclide detectors allows noninvasive outpatient monitoring of left ventricular function. This study was aimed at describing a new radionuclide technique useful to monitor cardiac function and at evaluating its potential clinical applications. We studied 14 normal subjects, 30 patients with coronary artery disease and 25 patients with dilated cardiomyopathy. Left ventricular function was continuously monitored in control conditions at rest, during daily physical activity of different intensity (walking on a level surface and climbing stairs), and during bicycle exercise. Left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) variability during recording in control conditions at rest was 0.2 +/- 1.8%. A significant relationship between outpatient EF at rest and conventional equilibrium radionuclide angiography was observed (r = 0.97, n = 69, p less than 0.001). In normal subjects both daily physical activity and exercise stress test induced an increase in heart rate and EF. In patients with coronary artery disease and in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy a heterogeneous EF response was observed during physical activity and exercise stress test. Our results demonstrate that this technique can be used for the ambulatory monitoring of left ventricular function in both normal subjects and patients with different types of cardiomyopathies

Assessment of Systolic Wall Thickening Using Technetium-99m Methoxyisobutylisonitrile in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease: Relation to Thallium-201 Scintigraphy with Reinjection

The results of resting planar ECG-gated technetium- 99m methoxyisobutylisonitrile (99mTc-MIBI) imaging were compared with those of thallium-201 (T1) reinjection after exercise-redistribution scintigraphy in 20 patients (19 men, 1 woman, mean age 53_10 years) with angiographically proven coronary artery disease. Eight normal subjects (seven men, one woman, mean age 50___8 years) constituted the control group. In these subjects, only resting 99mTc-MIBI imaging was performed. The standardized percent count increase from end-diastole to end-systole was calculated as an index of wall thickening in 13 segments for each study. Regional wall thickening index (WTI) and 99mTc-MIBI uptake were significantly different (P<0.05) among segments classified as normal, reversible defects, irreversible defects with increased tracer uptake after re-injection (Re+) or irreversible defects with unchanged tracer uptake after re-injection (Re-) on T1 imaging. Furthermore, WTI and 99mTCMIBI uptake were significantly higher (P<0.05) in Resegments with moderate reduction of T1 uptake (>_50% of peak activity) than in Re- segments with severe reduction of T1 uptake (<50% of peak activity). A significant relationship between WTI and the results of T1 scintigraphy was observed (rho=0.71, P<0.0001). The percentage of Re- segments with severe reduction of WTI was significantly higher compared to Re+ segments (64% vs 3%, P<0.01). Furthermore, compared with moderate Re- segments, a significantly higher percentage of severe Re- segments showed a severe reduction of WTI (86% vs 48%, P<0.01). Our data document a close relationship between 99mTc-MIBI regional wall thickening, myocardial perfusion and T1 uptake after reinjection. The results of this study suggest that regional Correspondence to: A. Cuocolo, Via Posillipo 66, 1-80123 Napoli, Italy WTI decreased significantly as myocardial perfusion decreased. In addition, regional wall thickening was preserved in segments with exercise-induced ischaemia and enhanced T1 uptake after re-injection

Measurement of the decay rate and form factor parameter alpha(K)* in the decay KL -> e+ e- gamma

The decay rate of the neutral K meson K_L --> e+ e- gamma has been measured with the NA48 detector at the CERN SPS. A total of 6864 events has been observed with an estimated background of 10 events. The branching ratio is Gamma(K_L --> e+ e- gamma)/ Gamma(K_L --> all) = (1.06 +- 0.02 stat +- 0.02 sys +- 0.04 calc) * 10^-5. The parameter alphaK* describing the relative strength of the two contributing amplitudes to this decay through intermediate pseudoscalar or vector mesons was measured to be alphaK* = (-0.36 +- 0.06 stat +- 0.02 sys)

Direct search for light gluinos

We present the results for a direct search for light gluinos through the appearance of eta --> 3 pi0 with high transverse momentum in the vacuum tank of the NA48 experiment at CERN. We find one event within a lifetime range of 10^-9 – 10^-3 s and another one between 10^-10 – 10^-9 s. Both events are consistent with the expected background from neutrons in the beam, produced by 450 GeV protons impinging on the Be targets, which interact with the residual air in the tank. From these data we give limits on the production of the hypothetical gg~ bound state, the R0 hadron, and its R0 --> eta gamma~ decay in the R0 mass range between 1 and 5 GeV