This October 2004 issue of Alasbimn Journal initiates year 7 of uninterrupted publication in its electronic format. For this Editor in Chief this period of time has been an enriching experience to be at the service of diffusion of research progress and Continuing Education of Latin American Nuclear Medicine. During these years we have received the inconditional support of our readers, the enthusiastic support of so many authors of scientific papers, of our Editorial Board, Editorial Consulting Board, from SISIB University of Chile, our publishers in the Internet and our commercial sponsors. We would like to specially thank the Sociedad Chilena de Medicina Nuclear that provided indispensable economic support during the first years of publication. To all of these, on behalf of the Editorial Board we extend our appreciation and thanks.
All this effort has been rewarded by the amount and quality of the scientific papers that we publish quarterly, that are currently read by an excess of 35000 visits/month, thus allowing us to project a readership of 400,000 visits/year. This is a good proof of the significance and impact that Alasbimn Journal has on the Latin American Scientific Community.
I wish to highlight the support received from SISIB Dept. of Libraries of University of Chile, which has been responsible for a continuous improvement of the quality of our publication, its timeliness and strict fulfillment of publication schedules, always on the First day of the corresponding Quarter. We are proud to be the only publication in our specialty that is offered free of charge to readers and authors, without any restriction, including the possibility of downloading freely for printing purposes of our full articles, with figures included. This feature is taken advantage off frequently by medical and psychology students from our Universities. These characteristics make as belong to the group of very few medical publications that are published currently for free without any restriction., and this makes as immensely proud.
In this issue we publish an important paper from Francisco Mena MD et al. on the role of NeuroSPECT in the diagnosis and management of hyper acute Stroke and its treatment with arterial thrombolysis. It demonstrates quantitatively the significance of the ischemic Penumbra that can be reperfused by means of arterial thrombolysis. It demonstrates also the importance of the time of evolution factor for the recovery even of lesions that are deeply hypo perfused.
We publish also in this issue the extensive work of Sonia Merlano MD, which was awarded with the Medicine Award of the Colombian Academy of Medicine in 2003. This paper analyses in depth the important subject of the role of Myocardial Perfusion SPECT in the differential diagnosis of acute chest pain and establishes an interesting comparison with the value of Troponines for this purpose.
Teresa Massardo MD and its group at the University of Chile report on their experience with myocardial perfusion studies in Pediatrics, thus expanding significantly the usefulness of this diagnostic tool.
Abel Hernadez MSc and his group in Habana, Cuba publish their experience with stability and fractionation of HMPAO in brain perfusion studies.
Finally in the Clinical Cases Section, Dr Colmenter from Caracas, Venezuela reports their experience with Normal Data Base on PET and cardiology contributions of Pet.
We wish therefore to thank our collaborators their support to this successful endeavor that has been the publication of Alasbimn Journal during the last seven years.
Respectfully submitted
Ismael Mena MD
Editor in Chief
Alasbimn Journal
