Among the readily available -emitting radionuclides, the nuclides of iodine have the greatest versatility in labeling both the hydrophilic and the lipophilic compounds that are used in biology and medicine. Biologically important micrmolecules, semimacromolecules, and macromolecules have been identified which, after iodination, almost maintain the same molecular configuration and similar biologic specificity as those of the parent molecules. The multiple techniques for iodination and the clinical use of iodinated products have made possible the present status of the development of diagnostic...

Hypoxia, i.e. insufficient availability of oxygen within the tissue, is a more serious problem than realized in clinical routine work, although a large variety of theoretical and experimental data give clearly proven indications. During incidences and progress of many types of diseases hypoxia may enhance development and progress of the disease and, furthermore, decrease chances of efficient treatment of, e.g., tumors. Hypoxic tumor cells are up to three times more resistant towards radiation therapy than normoxic cells. With a diagnostic tool such as provided by hypoxia tracers suitable for...

In the developed world, images of brain structure are available as an everyday diagnostic aid, and the characteristic appearances of most pathological conditions can be looked up in a textbook. Functional brain imaging is to this day less widely used, partly because most pressing diagnostic questions can be answered by refer ence to the patient's cerebral anatomy, partly for reasons of technical limitations of functional techniques. PET as a technique is sufficiently resource-demanding and complex to inhibit its use as an everyday diagnostic technique. SPECT lacked suitable tracers for many...

It is quite natural that literature related to car- heart disease, cardiomyopathy, pulmonary and diac structure, function, pathology, and patho- pulmonary vascular disease, trauma, acquired valvular disease, congenital disease, and surgi- physiology has emphasized the left heart and systemic circulation. The relative lack of im- cal considerations. The pathologic and clinical relevance of myocardial infarction of the right portance of the right ventricle was supported by studies performed in the 1940s and 1950s ventricle has only been documented over the which suggested that the right...

Optimization problems abound in most fields of science, engineering, and tech- nology. In many of these problems it is necessary to compute the global optimum (or a good approximation) of a multivariable function. The variables that define the function to be optimized can be continuous and/or discrete and, in addition, many times satisfy certain constraints. Global optimization problems belong to the complexity class of NP-hard prob- lems. Such problems are very difficult to solve. Traditional descent optimization algorithms based on local information are not adequate for solving these...

Radiochemical methodology constitutes the most important base for the successful functioning of a PET group in the routine production and development of radiopharmaceuticals. Of the several hundred products which have been labelled with positron emitters during the past two decades about 35 are presently considered to be of major interest. The time for a state-of-the-art review is right, since this field has advanced over the past fifteen years to reach a level where guidelines can now be suggested. Chapters of this book deal with each of the main methodological aspects of the chemistry...

Hypoxia, i.e. insufficient availability of oxygen within the tissue, is a more serious problem than realized in clinical routine work, although a large variety of theoretical and experimental data give clearly proven indications. During incidences and progress of many types of diseases hypoxia may enhance development and progress of the disease and, furthermore, decrease chances of efficient treatment of, e.g., tumors. Hypoxic tumor cells are up to three times more resistant towards radiation therapy than normoxic cells. With a diagnostic tool such as provided by hypoxia tracers suitable for...

The use of electrochemical techniques by chemists, particularly those who regard themselves as "inorganic" coordination chemists, has undergone a very rapid growth in the last 15-20 years. The techniques, as dassically applied to inorganic species, had their origins in analytical chemistry, and the methodology had assumed, until the mid 60s, more importance than the chemiStry. However, the growth of interest in coordination compounds (including organometallic complexes) having unusually rich of electron-transfer in bio-inorganic redox properties, and in the understanding species, has...

Coronary flow reserve is a functional measure of stenosis severity re flecting the integrated effects of its geometry including percent stenosis, absolute lumen area, length and shape. Its clinical application has been primarily qualitative in non-invasive, perfusion imaging. Measurement of coronary flow reserve during routine coronary arte riography has been an elusive goal. Transit time and indicator dilution techniques for assessing coronary flow reserve at cardiac catheteriza tion are associated with marked variability compared to microspheres or flow meters, thereby making their use...

Ophiolites are distinctive assemblages of malic to ultramalic rocks representing fragments of the oceanic lithosphere. Nicolas (tectonophysics, U. of Montpelier) establishes a global comparison between ophiolites and their various oceanic environments, to aid in understanding the physical processes