Publications by authors named "Antonio Rodriguez Fernandez"

Article Synopsis
  • Study Purpose
  • : The study aimed to identify factors influencing different types of left atrial strain (LARS, LACS, LABS) in patients without cardiovascular disease, emphasizing the relationship between left atrial strain and left ventricular function.
  • Methods
  • : Researchers conducted echocardiographic exams on patients from two hospitals, measuring left atrial volumes and strains using advanced imaging software, with a total of 196 patients analyzed, averaging 54 years of age.
  • Findings
  • : Results showed key correlations between left atrial strain and factors such as sex, global longitudinal strain, and left atrial ejection fraction, highlighting the importance of global longitudinal strain as a significant predictor of left atrial reservoir
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Article Synopsis
  • Virtual Reality (VR) is a useful tool for motor learning rehabilitation, especially for complex tasks like walking with lower-limb exoskeletons, which involve multiple sub-tasks.
  • A study was conducted using a head-mounted display system to train participants on these virtual walking tasks, comparing first-person and third-person perspectives, along with visual feedback on movements.
  • While all participants improved in executing the tasks, the research suggests that the effectiveness of VR training relies on appropriately matching the perspective and feedback to each specific sub-task rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
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Background: Metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a lethal malignancy with dispiriting survival data. Immunotherapy is a promising approach to many cancer types, but achieves poor outcomes in advanced PDAC due to its immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. We describe a case of metastatic PDAC effectively treated with pembrolizumab.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on the evolving treatment strategies for liver metastases from colon cancer, highlighting the role of Yttrium-90 Radioembolization (Y-90 TARE) as a viable option for patients with unresectable liver metastases.
  • A multidisciplinary committee of experts conducted a thorough literature review to create recommendations on the use of Y-90 TARE, addressing criteria like patient selection, treatment indications, and potential contraindications.
  • The review provides a detailed framework for implementing Y-90 TARE, covering essential areas from initial patient evaluation to post-treatment follow-up, ensuring comprehensive management of the treatment process.
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Purpose: Primary objective was to compare the per-patient detection rates (DR) of [F]DCFPyL versus [F]fluoromethylcholine positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT), in patients with first prostate cancer (PCa) biochemical recurrence (BCR). Secondary endpoints included safety and impact on patient management (PM).

Methods: This was a prospective, open label, cross-over, comparative study with randomized treatment administration of [F]DCFPyL (investigational medicinal product) or [F]fluoromethylcholine (comparator).

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Objectives: Determine the usefulness of [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography ( FDG-PET/CT) in the preoperative setting of colorectal cancer (CRC), assessing its impact on changes in management strategy.

Methods: Retrospective study of CRC patients who underwent preoperative FDG-PET/CT and CT staging scans in a single referral center. The agreement between FDG-PET/CT, contrast-enhanced CT, and colonoscopy for the surgical location was compared using the κ coefficient.

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Recovering the ability to stand and walk independently can have numerous health benefits for people with spinal cord injury (SCI). Wearable exoskeletons are being considered as a promising alternative to conventional knee-ankle-foot orthoses (KAFOs) for gait training and assisting functional mobility. However, comparisons between these two types of devices in terms of gait biomechanics and energetics have been limited.

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SARS-CoV-2 virus infects organs other than the lung, such as mediastinal lymph nodes, spleen, and liver, but, to date, metabolic imaging studies obtained in short-term follow-ups of patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19 infection are rare. Our objective was to evaluate the usefulness of [F]FDG-PET/CT in the short-term follow-up of patients admitted for COVID-19 pneumonia and to explore the association of the findings with clinical prognostic markers. The prospective study included 20 patients with COVID-19 pneumonia (November 2020-March 2021).

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Fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma is a primary hepatic tumor that usually appears in young adults. Radical surgery is considered curative for this kind of tumor, so early diagnosis becomes essential for the prognosis of the patients. The main characteristic of this entity is the central scar, which is the center of differential diagnosis.

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Gait disorders can reduce the quality of life for people with neuromuscular impairments. Therefore, walking recovery is one of the main priorities for counteracting sedentary lifestyle, reducing secondary health conditions and restoring legged mobility. At present, wearable powered lower-limb exoskeletons are emerging as a revolutionary technology for robotic gait rehabilitation.

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Background: Powered wheelchairs are an essential technology to support mobility, yet their use is associated with a high level of sedentarism that can have negative health effects for their users. People with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) start using a powered wheelchair in their early teens due to the loss of strength in their legs and arms. There is evidence that low-intensity exercise can help preserve the functional abilities of people with DMD, but options for exercise when sitting in a powered wheelchair are limited.

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To evaluate the use of amyloid-positron emission tomography (PET) in routine clinical practice, in a selected population with cognitive impairment that meets appropriate use criteria (AUC).A multicenter, observational, prospective case-series study of 211patients from 2 level-3 hospitals who fulfilled clinical AUC for amyloid-PET scan in a naturalistic setting. Certainty degree was evaluated using a 5-point Likert scale: 0 (very low probability); 1 (low probability); 2 (intermediate probability); 3 (high probability); and 4 (practically sure), before and after amyloid PET.

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Purpose: To evaluate the capacity of 18f-fluorocholine positron emission tomography/computed tomography (FCH PET/CT) to detect biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer and to determine the correlation with PSA kinetics and influence of antiandrogen hormone therapy.

Patients And Methods: Observational and retrospective study, which included patients with prostate cancer and criteria for biochemical recurrence and/or resistance to castration, according to the European Association of Urology. FCH PET/CT results were classified as positive or negative, using as gold standard the pathology report, findings of other imaging test, and/or clinical follow-up results.

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F-FBB PET is a neuroimaging modality that is been increasingly used to assess brain amyloid deposits in potential patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this work, we analyze the usefulness of these data to distinguish between AD and non-AD patients. A dataset with F-FBB PET brain images from 94 subjects diagnosed with AD and other disorders was evaluated by means of multiple analyses based on -test, ANOVA, Fisher Discriminant Analysis and Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification.

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Objectives: More than 20% of lung cancer patients develop a recurrence, even after curative resection. We hypothesized that relapse may arise from the dissemination of circulating tumour cells (CTCs). This study evaluates the significance of CTC detection as regards the recurrence of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in surgically resected patients.

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Background: Chronic aortic regurgitation can be well tolerated for a long time. Some patients with normal ventricular function can even reach high levels of sporting performance. How the severity of regurgitation may change during exercise, however, is little known, although some studies suggest it diminishes.

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Because of advances in cardiac structural interventional procedures, imaging techniques are playing an increasingly important role. Imaging studies show sufficient anatomic detail of the heart structure to achieve an excellent outcome in interventional procedures. Up to 98% of atrial septal defects at the ostium secundum can be closed successfully with a percutaneous procedure.

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Purpose: The follow-up of treated low-grade glioma (LGG) requires the evaluation of subtle clinical changes and MRI results. When the result is inconclusive, additional procedures are required to assist decision-making, such as the use of advanced MRI (aMRI) sequences and nuclear medicine scans (SPECT and PET). The aim of this study was to determine whether incorporating (18)F-fluorocholine PET/CT in the follow-up protocol for treated LGG improves diagnostic accuracy and clinical utility.

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Objective: To evaluate (18)F-fluorocholine positron-emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) in restaging patients with a history of prostate adenocarcinoma who have biochemical relapse after early radical treatment, and to correlate the technique's disease detection rate with a set of variables and clinical and pathological parameters.

Patients And Methods: This was a retrospective multicentre study that included 374 patients referred for choline-PET/CT who had biochemical relapse. In all, 233 patients who met the following inclusion criteria were analysed: diagnosis of prostate cancer; early radical treatment; biochemical relapse; main clinical and pathological variables; and clinical, pathological and imaging data needed to validate the results.

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Background: The prognostic benefit of health care service provision and delivery policies for patients with malignant melanoma (MM) is not yet clear.

Objective: To analyze the role of health care provision determinants in the initial prognosis of MM.

Methods: A multicenter cross-sectional study was conducted at 14 public hospitals and recruited 3550 patients with MM between 2000 and 2009.

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Despite the existence of numerous neuroimaging studies demonstrating significant brain functional alterations in substance users, only a few studies have tried to analyze the association between the duration of abstinence and brain metabolism within substance users. The aim of this study was to examine the association between resting-state regional brain metabolism (measured with 18F-fluordeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography (FDGPET) and duration of drug abstinence in a sample of 49 abstinent polysubstance users. PET images were pre-processed and analyzed using SPM5 and SPSS 15.

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Purpose: To assess the value of FDG-PET/CT in the evaluation of gallbladder carcinomas (GBC).

Methods: A prospective cohort of patients with suspicion of or confirmed GBC was studied with FDG-PET/CT. Diagnostic accuracy parameters were calculated in comparison with pathology and/or the clinical course of patients.

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Surgical adhesives are frequently used after pulmonary resection to prevent or reduce pulmonary air leakages, since leakages may cause complications delaying the removal of chest drainage tubes and prolonging in-hospital stay. In this paper, we present 2 patients who underwent curative-intent pulmonary resection for non-small-cell lung carcinoma, in which the biological adhesive BioGlue(®) was used. Follow-up fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose positron emission tomography/computed tomographic (FDG-PET/CT) imaging revealed hypermetabolic pulmonary nodular lesions.

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