It’s summer time, holidays, but we have one of the worst crises in the European Union’s history. The Greek culture has given us the myth about Europa – Phoenician woman violated by Zeus in the form of a white bull. Hmm... a bull, the modern symbol of stock exchange. Metaphorically, a name Europa could be construed as ‘intelligent’ or ‘open-minded’. So, I hope that European politicians will find the way to agreement and the „Grexit” will not happen. Nevertheless, I am happy to introduce the second issue of Nuclear Medicine Review in 2015. The Polish authors open the chapter „Original articles” with the paper awarded during congress of the Polish Association of Nuclear Medicine 2014 – „The radiometal makes a difference. Synthesis and preliminary characterization of DOTA– minigastrin analogue complexes with Ga, Lu and Y”. They observed different chromatographic behavior for Ga-CP04 complex comparing to Lu- and Y-labeled peptide, suggesting different coordination of the metal ions. The authors plan further studies using the non-radIoactlve complexes In order to assess their structural conformations. The Nuclear Medicine Review pages are open to their newfindings. The second article by Croatian investigators concludes that 18F-choline PET/CT is a valuable and established functional diagnostic imaging method for staging and restaging prostate cancer. However, nonspecific uptake of the tracer can often be seen in lymph nodes not related to primary disease. Patient history, clinical examination, laboratory tests and correlation with other imaging methods, must be taken into consideration when interpreting 18F-choline PET/CT findings. The third paper titled „Influence of low grade exercise on skeletal scintigraphy using 99mTc methylene diphosphonate”, from Egypt, discusses a physiological influence of low grade exercise on the image quality of 99mTc MDP skeletal scintigraphy by increasing MDP osseous uptake. There are next six articles from Poland. The first one considers studies on the separation of 99mTc from large excess of molybdenum and explores the alternative methods of production of 99mTc. The second and the third papers are from the same center. The first shows that a segment counting method underestimates predicted FEV1 values. A planar lung perfusion scintigraphy is considered optimal for prediction of postoperative lung function in patients qualified for pneumonectomy and lobectomy. The results indicate that assuming a postoperative actual FEV1 value not lower than 800 mL, a predicted postoperative residual FEV1 value calculation based on preoperative spirometry and planar lung perfusion study should notfall below 1000 mL. From the third „Effect of CT misalignment on attenuation – corrected myocadial perfusion SPECT” appears that such misalignments are rare and if exceed 3 pixels, they have negative impact on attenuation corrected images. Although alignment of SPECT and CT studies should be checked in every patient, small misalignments do not affect study interpretation. The next article titled „Early brain perfusion improvement after ventriculoperitoneal shunt surgery in patients with idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus evaluated by 99mTc-HMPAO SPECT – preliminary report” indicates that cerebral perfusion is recovered promptly after ventriculoperitoneal shunt surgery in about 60% of patients with idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus. This improvement may be global or regional in different cerebral areas with prevalence of the frontal lobes. The conclusion from the next paper is that bone metastases localization seems to influence survival in patients with renal cancer. Long bone involving spread of the disease is probably associated with worse survival than the spread to the other bones. The last article in this chapter shows that 90Y-PET/CT imaging is a promising method to assess „Y-microspheres distribution and dosimetry, but further clinical studies are necessary.

In this issue of Nuclear Medicine Review there are discussed three interesting clinical cases. The first paper, from Portugal, describes and illustrates thefirst case ever published with 99mTc(V)-DMSA SPECT-CT imaging of the Gorham-Stout Disease. It seems that this imaging procedure could be useful in diagnosis and evaluation of the disease activity and response to therapy. The second one, from Italy, indicates 124I-MIBG as a new promising positron-emitting radiopharmaceutical for the evaluation of neuroblastoma. The third one, by Tunisian authors, illustrates uncommon association of rib and tibial metastases of a follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma.

The Review part consists of the general state of knowledge concerning diagnosis and treatment of Graves’-Basedow disease, with particular emphasis on appropriate techniques in nuclear medicine.

In the end of my letter I would like to wish all of you joyful vacation (and to have time to read Nuclear Medicine Review, of course).

Yours

Grzegorz Kamiński

Editor-in-Chief

Nuclear Medicine Review