Molecular Imaging

Dual-tracer PET/CT shows promise in liver cancer patients

Dual-tracer PET/CT appears valuable for improving tumor staging in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma being evaluated for treatment.

April 26, 2024

SPECT/CT predicts foot amputations in diabetics

Technetium-99m white blood cell SPECT/CT imaging may be useful for identifying diabetic patients at risk of amputations due to foot infections.

April 24, 2024

Examples in two patients. (Top) Abnormal leukocyte accumulation was observed in the right 1st to 5th toes, with the radioactive lesions extending to the bone, indicating osteomyelitis (left panel, MIP image; right panel, axial SPECT/CT). Two spherical VOIs were drawn on diabetic foot infections (DFIs) and the highest SUVmax was 4.2 (higher than the cutoff of 1.1) Despite intensive treatment, the infection progressed, leading to the patient undergoing right below knee amputation 43 days after SPECT/CT. (Bottom) Mild focal abnormal leukocyte accumulation was detected in the right 3rd and 4th toes. The lesions were in contact with the bone, which raised a suspicion of osteomyelitis (left panel, MIP image; right panel, axial SPECT/CT). A circular VOI was drawn on DFIs and the SUVmax was 1.0 (lower than the cutoff of 1.1). After 10 weeks of antibiotic treatment, the infection was successfully resolved, and the foot was preserved. Image and caption courtesy of Scientific Reports.

PET/CT superior to MRI for detecting spinal bone metastases

Gallium-68 (Ga-68) DOTATATE PET/CT appears to be the best approach for detecting spinal bone metastases in patients with certain neuroendocrine tumors.

April 23, 2024

Neuroimaging detects blast exposure brain injuries in U.S. soldiers

A battery of MRI and PET neuroimaging tests show patterns of brain injury in active-duty U.S. soldiers caused by repeated blast exposures.

April 22, 2024

PET/MRI reveals sex differences in patients with autism

PET/MRI shows that young women with autism spectrum disorder have increased brain metabolism associated with translocator protein.

April 18, 2024

PET tracer for gliomas under expedited review

By AuntMinnie.com staff writers

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted fast-track designation to Telix Pharmaceuticals’ PET radiotracer F-18 floretyrosine (Pixclara) for imaging progressive or recurring gliomas.

April 17, 2024

FAPI-PET shows promise in patients with lung cancer

FAPI-PET imaging could emerge as a new tool for assessing patients with single pulmonary tumors, especially in those with negative results on other scans.

April 15, 2024

F-18 FDG and Ga-68 FAPI-46 images of a 51-year-old woman with adenocarcinoma with lepidic growth pattern in right upper lobe. (A) Maximum-intensity-projection PET images. The lesion had F-18 FDG uptake below blood pool level but was strongly Ga-68 FAPI-46-positive. CT-guided biopsy led to pathologic diagnosis of adenocarcinoma, and the patient was treated by stereotactic body radiation therapy because of functional inoperability. Image courtesy of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

Vision transformer AI model boosts PET/CT imaging of cancer

A vision transformer AI model outperformed convolutional neural networks when classifying tumors on PET/CT images as benign or malignant.

April 12, 2024

Predictions and Grad-CAMs of ViT-based models on sample PET/CT, PET, and CT test images from the “positive” class. ViT was fine-tuned using training data for each modality. The bounding boxes depicted in the figure indicate malignant lesions. The top row of the Grad-CAMs shows important areas for “positive” predictions, and the bottom row shows areas for “negative” predictions. Image courtesy of Scientific Reports.

Can AI improve sustainability in nuclear medicine?

Nuclear medicine experts support the use of AI to improve sustainability of practices in the field, yet say implementation will require careful consideration of the technology’s benefits and detriments.

April 9, 2024

ChatGPT powered by GPT-4 and using DALL-E−3 was asked to generate an image for teaching purposes that demonstrated: a nuclear medicine bone scan with skeletal metastases (top left); coronary artery disease (top right); an F-18 FDG-PET scan of the brain with Alzheimer's disease (bottom left); and an x-ray showing a fracture (bottom right). These are misleading for educational purposes and for patients who may be searching for information. Image and caption courtesy of Radiography.

PET/MRI detects brain injury in pediatric cancer survivors

PET/MRI could be a tool for diagnosing brain injury due to high-dose methotrexate treatment in young cancer survivors.

April 8, 2024

A visual abstract of the study. Image courtesy of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

Life Molecular Imaging, Sofie add Neuraceq availability out of Ohio

By AuntMinnie.com staff writers

Life Molecular Imaging and Sofie Biosciences have begun offering the Neuraceq PET radiotracer produced at Sofie's radiopharmaceutical manufacturing site in Cleveland, Ohio.

April 5, 2024

Brain Puzzle Dementia Social

CDL Nuclear Technologies launches mobile cardiac PET/CT trailer

By AuntMinnie.com staff writers

The company said the mobile trailer complements its other services, which include PET/CT buildouts and on-demand daily use rubidium-82 radioisotope services.

April 5, 2024

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