99mTc-tetrofosmin uptake in bone metastases from breast cancer

99mTc-tetrofosmin myocardial imaging was performed in a 62-year-old woman who had undergone standard radical mastectomy for right breast cancer 6 years ago. Although the result was negative for the ischemic heart disease, it showed abnormal accumulation corresponding to the bone metastases in the spine. We believe that 99mTc-tetrofosmin imaging is helpful in detecting bone metastases from breast cancer.

[Visual acuity measured by pattern visual evoked potential]

We investigated the appropriateness of a method for the assessment of visual acuity using pattern visual evoked potentials (PVEP) in which retinal X-ganglion cells are predominantly stimulated. Eighteen normal eyes (average 22.2 years old) with normal acuity of 1.0 were examined. The stimulus consisted of white and black checkerboards (39', 26', 15' and 9') with a visual angle of eight degrees and a contrast level of 15%. The pattern reversal frequency was 0.7 Hz. This resulted in 100 averaged PVEP per session. We judged visual acuity from responses of the P100 component. Visual acuity was judged to be 0.1, so that there was response to the 39' checkerboard stimulus pattern, but not to the 26' pattern. Consequently, the accuracy for visual acuity was 76.9% for 0.1, 71.4% for 0.2, 70.0% for 0.5 and 58.3% for 1.0. This method, which uses a stimulus pattern with a small visual angle, low contrast, and low pattern reversal frequency, is useful for subjective measurement of the visual acuity of infants or handicapped children whom it is difficult to measure by the conventional objective method of measuring visual acuity with Landolt's rings.

Gastric plasmacytoma: an early lesion diagnosed with the aid of immunoperoxidase and immunogold techniques

A case of gastric plasmacytoma in a 34-yr-old woman has been presented. The demonstration of monotypic intracytoplasmic immunoglobulin of IgM-kappa type in biopsy specimens by immunoperoxidase technique contributed the confident histological diagnosis. In the resected stomach, IgM-kappa monoclonal proliferation of plasmacytic tumor cell was also demonstrated in the lamina propria and in the perivascular space of the submucosa, which was distinct from plasma cells of polyclonal nature diffusely infiltrating in the adjacent mucosa. The double immunogold staining confirmed the presence of immunoglobulin IgM-kappa type in the distended rough endoplasmic reticulum of the tumor cell.