TRICHINELLA INFECTIONS IN WILDLIFE FROM PENNSYLVANIA: VARIATION IN EXPOSURE AMONG COYOTE (CANIS LATRANS), GRAY FOX (UROCYON CINEREOARGENTEUS), AND RED FOX (VULPES VULPES).

During a survey for Sarcocystis infections in Pennsylvania in wild canids, muscles from the tongue and limb were examined microscopically for sarcocysts. Between 9 February 2024 and 11 February 2024, muscle samples were collected from 76 coyotes, 46 gray foxes, and 21 red foxes from Pennsylvania hunter harvested animals. Around 5 g of muscle was examined microscopically by compression between a glass slide and coverslip.

Surveillance for infection in U.S. pigs raised under controlled management documents negligible risk for public health.

Biosecurity measures preventing exposure of pigs to rodents, wildlife, and contaminated feed or waste products reduce the risk of zoonotic infection in pork. To understand the benefits of such measures in the United States, we conducted the first comprehensive survey of pigs produced under the Pork Quality Assurance Plus production standard, surveying 3,208,643 pork samples from twelve processing locations tested over a period of 54 months. We detected no sp.

The Theranostic Optimization of PSMA-GCK01 Does Not Compromise the Imaging Characteristics of [Tc]Tc-PSMA-GCK01 Compared to Dedicated Diagnostic [Tc]Tc-EDDA/HYNIC-iPSMA in Prostate Cancer.

Purpose: Radiolabeled PSMA-ligands play a major role in today's nuclear medicine. Since approval of [Lu]Lu-PSMA-617 for therapy of metastatic prostate cancer, availability of Lu became bottleneck of supply due to the high demand. Recently, a theranostic PSMA-ligand, PSMA-GCK01, was developed which can be labeled either diagnostically with Tc or therapeutically with Re with both nuclides available from well-known generator systems.

Imaging of Invasive Fungal Infections- The Role of PET/CT.

Over the last decades, the population at risk for invasive fungal disease (IFD) has increased because of medical therapy advances and diseases compromising patients' immune systems. The high morbidity and mortality associated with invasive fungal disease in the immunocompromised present the challenge of early diagnosis of the IFD and the need to closely monitor the infection during treatment. The definitive diagnosis of invasive fungal disease based on culture or histopathological methods often has reduced diagnostic accuracy in the immunocompromised and may be very invasive.

Molecular Imaging of Tuberculosis.

Despite the introduction of many novel diagnostic techniques and newer treatment agents, tuberculosis (TB) remains a major cause of death from an infectious disease worldwide. With about a quarter of humanity harboring Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of TB, the current efforts geared towards reducing the scourge due to TB must be sustained. At the same time, newer alternative modalities for diagnosis and treatment response assessment are considered.

Prognostic value of 11C-methionine volume-based PET parameters in IDH wild type glioblastoma.

Purpose: 11C-Methionine (11C-MET) PET prognostication of isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) wild type glioblastomas is inadequate as conventional parameters such as standardized uptake value (SUV) do not adequately reflect tumor heterogeneity. We retrospectively evaluated whether volume-based parameters such as metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and total lesion methionine metabolism (TLMM) outperformed SUV for survival correlation in patients with IDH wild type glioblastomas.

Methods: Thirteen IDH wild type glioblastoma patients underwent preoperative 11C-MET PET.

Radionuclide Imaging of Invasive Fungal Disease in Immunocompromised Hosts.

Invasive fungal disease (IFD) leads to increased mortality, morbidity, and costs of treatment in patients with immunosuppressive conditions. The definitive diagnosis of IFD relies on the isolation of the causative fungal agents through microscopy, culture, or nucleic acid testing in tissue samples obtained from the sites of the disease. Biopsy is not always feasible or safe to be undertaken in immunocompromised hosts at risk of IFD.

Radionuclide Imaging of Fungal Infections and Correlation with the Host Defense Response.

The human response to invading fungi includes a series of events that detect, kill, or clear the fungi. If the metabolic host response is unable to eliminate the fungi, an infection ensues. Some of the host response's metabolic events to fungi can be imaged with molecules labelled with radionuclides.

The adjunctive use of carbimazole during radioactive iodine treatment reduces the cure rate of Graves' disease.

Background: Radioactive iodine (RAI) is widely used in the treatment of hyperthyroidism. Adjunctive antithyroid drugs (ATDs) are commonly prescribed to treat the hyperthyroid state before the RAI has taken effect. However, there is no consensus on the use of or timing of adjunctive ATD treatment with RAI.

Factors influencing the delivery and uptake of early infant diagnosis of HIV services in Greater Accra, Ghana: A qualitative study.

Background: Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) of HIV and timely initiation of Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) can significantly reduce morbidity and mortality of HIV infected infants. Despite the benefits of early infant testing, the coverage of EID of HIV services is still low in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Ghana.

Objectives: To ascertain the factors that facilitate or hinder the delivery and uptake of EID of HIV services.

The Added Value of [F]FDG PET/CT in the Management of Invasive Fungal Infections.

Anatomy-based imaging methods are the usual imaging methods used in assessing invasive fungal infections (IFIs). [F]FDG PET/CT has also been used in the evaluation of IFIs. We assessed the added value of [F]FDG PET/CT when added to the most frequently used anatomy-based studies in the evaluation of IFIs.

FDG PET/CT for evaluating systemic arterial inflammation induced by anthracycline-based chemotherapy of Hodgkin lymphoma: A retrospective cohort study.

To evaluate arterial fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake as a marker of arterial inflammation in multiple vascular beds in patients treated with anthracycline-based chemotherapy for Hodgkin lymphoma (HL).We used maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) and target-to-background ratio (TBR) to quantify arterial FDG uptake in the carotid artery, ascending aorta, abdominal aorta, and femoral artery obtained on positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) imaging performed at baseline before chemotherapy and after completion of chemotherapy in patients with HL treated with an anthracycline-containing regimen. We compared the SUVmax and TBR obtained at baseline with that obtained post-chemotherapy for each arterial bed to evaluate the effect of anthracycline-based chemotherapy.

Comparison of Fluorine(18)-fluorodeoxyglucose and Gallium(68)-citrate PET/CT in patients with tuberculosis.

Unlabelled: F-FDG and Ga-citrate PET/CT have both been shown to be useful in the management of tuberculosis (TB). We compared the abnormal PET findings of F-FDG- and Ga-citrate-PET/CT in patients with TB.

Methods:  Patients with TB on anti-TB therapy were included.

Impact of optimized PET imaging conditions on F-FDG uptake quantification in patients with apparently normal aortas.

Background: The cardiovascular committee of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) recently published recommendations on imaging conditions to be observed during F-FDG PET imaging of vascular inflammation. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of applying these optimized imaging conditions on PET quantification of arterial F-FDG uptake.

Methods And Results: Fifty-seven patients were prospectively recruited to undergo an early F-FDG PET/CT imaging at 60 minutes and repeat delayed imaging at ≥ 120 minutes post tracer injection.

18F-FDG-PET/CT imaging of uterine cervical cancer recurrence in women with and without HIV infection.

Background: To compare the rate, time and, pattern of recurrence of cervical cancer between patients with and without HIV infection and to determine factors predicting cervical cancer recurrence in patients evaluated by F-FDG-PET/CT.

Methods: We reviewed the F-FDG-PET/CT images of patients with histologically proven cervical carcinoma who were presenting with suspected recurrence. We extracted epidemiologic data, previous treatment, histologic subtype, HIV status, viral load and CD4 counts from the electronic laboratory database and the referral form for the F-FDG-PET/CT study.

Prostate-specific antigen and risk of bone metastases in west Africans with prostate cancer.

We aimed to assess the relationship between bone scintigraphy findings and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and Gleason score in a group of treatment naïve West Africans with prostate cancer. The age, PSA, and Gleason scores of 363 patients with prostate cancer were collected. Patients were risk stratified using the D'Amico criteria.

Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography integrated with computed tomography in carcinoma of the cervix: Its impact on accurate staging and the predictive role of its metabolic parameters.

Objectives: To determine the impact of FDG-PET/CT in the initial staging of cervical cancer among women with and without HIV and to determine the abilities of FDG-PET/CT metabolic parameters in predicting the presence of distant metastasis.

Methods: We reviewed the FDG-PET/CT images of women with FIGO stage IB2 to IVA carcinoma of the cervix. We compared the FIGO stage before and after FDG-PET/CT.

Radionuclide imaging of inflammation in atherosclerotic vascular disease among people living with HIV infection: current practice and future perspective.

People living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection have twice the risk of atherosclerotic vascular disease compared with non-infected individuals. Inflammation plays a critical role in the development and progression of atherosclerotic vascular disease. Therapies targeting inflammation irrespective of serum lipid levels have been shown to be effective in preventing the occurrence of CVD.

Diagnostic utility of F-FDG PET/CT in fever of unknown origin among patients with end-stage renal disease treated with renal replacement therapy.

Objective: To evaluate the role of fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (F-FDG PET/CT) in identifying the cause of fever of unknown origin (FUO) in patients on renal replacement therapy (RRT) for end-stage renal disease (ESRD).

Subjects And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the F-FDG PET/CT scans of 46 patients with a mean age of 39.28±12.

Role of FDG PET/CT in monitoring treatment response in patients with invasive fungal infections.

Introduction: Invasive fungal infections (IFIs) occur mostly in immunosuppressed patients and can be life-threatening. Inadequate treatment is associated with high morbidity and mortality. We examined the role of 2-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography integrated with CT (FDG-PET/CT) in monitoring IFIs and therapy decision-making, and evaluated the role of baseline metabolic parameters in predicting the metabolic response.

Prognostic Value of Pre-treatment F-18 FDG PET Metabolic Metrics in Patients with Locally Advanced Carcinoma of the Anus with and without HIV Infection.

Aim: To investigate the prognostic value of F-18 FDG PET metabolic parameters in patients with anal carcinoma with and without human immunodeficiency virus infection (HIV).

Methods: Maximum standardized uptake value (SUV), mean standardized uptake value (SUV), metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) were obtained on F-18 FDG PET/CT images of treatment-naïve patients with locally advanced anal squamous cell carcinoma (ASSC). We compared patients' characteristics and F-18 FDG PET metabolic metrics between the HIV-infected patients and the HIV-uninfected patients.

18F-FDG-PET metabolic metrics and International Prognostic Score for risk assessment in HIV-infected patients with Hodgkin lymphoma.

Objectives: Baseline metabolic metrics on fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose PET (F-FDG PET) have prognostic value in Hodgkin lymphoma. International Prognostic Score (IPS) is used in the risk stratification of Hodgkin lymphoma. We compared the metabolic indices in HIV-infected and the IPS in HIV-infected and uninfected patients with Hodgkin lymphoma.

New Imaging Tracers for the Infected Diabetic Foot (Nuclear and Optical Imaging).

Diabetic Foot Infections (DFIs) are associated with increased morbidity, an economic burden on patients, their families and healthcare systems and increased mortality. Early diagnosis with prompt, appropriate and adequate treatment of the infected diabetic foot is crucial. The determination of DFIs, however, may be quite perplexing and invasive.

Monitoring Response to Therapy.

Monitoring response to treatment is a key element in the management of infectious diseases, yet controversies still persist on reliable biomarkers for noninvasive response evaluation. Considering the limitations of invasiveness of most diagnostic procedures and the issue of expression heterogeneity of pathology, molecular imaging is better able to assay in vivo biologic processes noninvasively and quantitatively. The usefulness of F-FDG-PET/CT in assessing treatment response in infectious diseases is more promising than for conventional imaging.