Abstract
The Japanese Society of Nuclear Cardiology (JSNC) has given out its Technical Award for outstanding technologists since 2012 to promote nuclear cardiology research. Mieko Ota, RT, MHSc won the 6th JSNC Technical Award. The issue of “Shinzo Kaku Igaku” (Japanese Journal of Nuclear Cardiology) contains her original award-winning article. She and her colleagues aimed to assess the differences between 123I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG)-SPECT scan accumulation patterns and 99mTc-sestamibi (MIBI)-SPECT scan images with phase analysis observed in pediatric patients with congenital heart disease (CHD). Her results showed that decreased cardiac MIBG uptake reflected sympathetic denervation secondary to CHD operative procedures in patients with CHD who exhibited a mismatch in uptake between the MIBG and MIBI. In cases with normal perfusion and abnormal MIBG, it was shown that her group should consider the possibility of underlying CHD and its associated procedures in adult CHD patients.
