Furosemide administration onehour before bone scintigraphy examination in horses does not improve the image quality or reduce the radiation dose rate

This prospective, cross‐sectional, pilot study aimed to investigate the effects of furosemide as a diuretic on the image quality of bone scintigraphy performed using ^99mTc‐HDP and to investigate the impact of furosemide on the radiation dose rate. Thirty‐one horses undergoing bone scintigraphy were included. The horses were divided into the control (n = 14) and furosemide group (n = 17), which received 1 mg/kg furosemide intravenously 1 h post ^99mTc‐HDP administration. The image quality was assessed subjectively and semi‐quantitatively. The bone‐to‐soft tissue (B:S) ratio was calculated from the counts per pixel of regions of interest (ROI) positioned over the left radial diaphysis (bone ROI) and its caudal soft tissue area (soft tissue ROI). The radiation rate dose (μSv/h) of both groups was measured at 0, 3, 6, 12, 18, and 24 h post ^99mTc‐HDP administration at a distance of 0, 30, and 100 cm from the head, kidney, and pelvis. The results showed no significant differences in the B:S ratio or the radiation dose rate observed between the groups. However, the radiation dose rate decreased by 56% at 3 h post ^99mTc‐HDP administration and keeping a distance of 30 cm reduced the radiation dose rate by 65%. Administering furosemide does not improve the image quality or reduce the radiation dose rate. The authors recommend commencing with bone scintigraphy 3 h post ^99mTc‐HDP administration and keeping at least a distance of 30 cm from the horse to reduce the staff radiation dose.     

Biodiversity representation in Uganda’s forest IBAs

Prioritising sites for action is essential due to current rates of population and habitat loss and increasing human numbers and demands on natural resources. Many prioritisation methods have been suggested at different spatial scales, including those based on single-taxon criteria. One such scheme is BirdLife International’s system of important bird areas (IBAs). Whilst IBA site qualification criteria are entirely bird-based, the intention is that these sites should conserve wider biodiversity. This idea has yet to be tested quantitatively, but a unique opportunity to do so exists in Uganda, where the Forest Department (FD) has conducted comprehensive inventories of five taxa (birds, butterflies, large moths, small mammals and woody plants) in 50 Ugandan Forest Reserves. Independently, Nature Uganda (the national conservation NGO) identified 30 IBAs, 13 of which were also forest reserves. In this paper we used the FD dataset to evaluate the efficiency with which Uganda’s forest IBAs capture species richness in other groups. In a combined area of 5445 km², Uganda’s 13 forest IBAs contained as many species as did an equal-sized set of sites selected by applying a complementarity-based algorithm to all FD data. Modifying this simple greedy algorithm to take account of site area resulted in a priority set that outperformed IBAs, but that consisted of far more sites for similar species representation. Our results illustrate the utility of the IBA network for representing a wide range of biodiversity. A major benefit of IBAs is the low cost of obtaining bird data relative to comprehensive multi-taxon inventories. The general applicability of these results outside tropical forests requires further investigation.