Recommendations for the use of nuclear medicine imaging in patients with neuroblastoma.

Neuroblastoma (NB) is the most common extracranial solid cancer in children. Despite intensive multimodality treatment, long-term survival of patients with high-risk NB, which comprises more than half of all cases, remains poor. Nuclear medicine is key in diagnosis, staging, response assessment and long-term follow-up of NB.

Acute Brain Stroke Evolution Detected by 18F-FDG PET/CT and MRI Justifies the Discordance of Lesions in a Patient With Lymphoproliferative Syndrome.

A 50-year-old man with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma in complete response to treatment presented new hypermetabolic brain lesions on 18F-FDG PET/CT suggestive of malignancy. These findings were correlated by MRI that showed cortical-subcortical peripheral lesions typical of acute ischemic infarction. A restaging 18F-FDG PET/CT showed that hypermetabolic lesions were replaced by ametabolic areas, supporting chronic infarction.

Diagnostic utility of PET/CT with F-DOPA and F-FDG in persistent or recurrent medullary thyroid carcinoma: the importance of calcitonin and carcinoembryonic antigen cutoff.

Purpose: This study sought to evaluate and compare the utility of 18-F-fluorodihydroxyphenylalanine (F-DOPA) and 18-F-fluorodeoxyglucose (F-FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) for identification of lesions in patients with recurrent medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC). In addition, we analyzed the correlation between the calcitonin (Ct), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels, each doubling time (DT), and PET positivity. We evaluated the reliability of the 150 pg/mL Ct cutoff set by the American Thyroid Association guidelines for further imaging (including F-DOPA PET/CT).

Role of F-FDG PET/CT in primary brain lymphoma.

Objective: To study the usefulness of F-FDG PET/CT in the initial evaluation and in the response assessment in primary brain lymphoma.

Material And Methods: A retrospective analysis was carried out on 18 patients diagnosed with primary brain lymphoma, a histological subtype of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, on whom an initial F-FDG PET/CT and MRI was performed, with 7 of the cases being analysed after the completion of treatment in order to assess response and clinical follow up.

Results: Initial F-FDG PET/CT showed 26 hypermetabolic foci, whereas 46 lesions were detected by MRI.

Primary squamous cell carcinoma of the thyroid. Initial assessment and follow-up using F-FDG PET/CT.

Squamous cell carcinoma of thyroid is an uncommon, very aggressive neoplasm, having a poor prognosis and poor response to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Surgery is the initial treatment of choice, although it often presents as a widespread disease at the time of diagnosis, usually with cervical swelling that causes most of the symptoms due to local infiltration or metastasis. Local infiltration from adjacent tumour and metastatic disease needs to be excluded from other primary epidermoid carcinomas, in order to make a correct diagnosis.

Usefulness of F-FDG PET/CT in a case of suspected vascular graft infection.

Vascular prosthetic graft infection (VPGI) is associated with high mortality and morbidity. An early and accurate diagnosis is essential in order to give the most appropriate treatment. The case is presented of a 74 year old male subjected to an aortobifemoral bypass graft, with clinical suspicion of VPGI with inconclusive tests.

Radioisotope synoviorthesis in paediatric and adolescent patients with haemophilia.

Objective: To assess the outcome and adverse-effects of the radioisotope synoviorthesis in paediatric and adolescent patients with haemophilia.

Material And Methods: Prospective study of historical cohort was conducted. A total of 20 consecutive haemophiliacs with a mean age of 13.

Role of SPECT-CT in sentinel lymph node biopsy in patients diagnosed with head and neck melanoma.

Objective: Assess the role of SPECT-CT in sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy in the accurate anatomical location of the SNL in patients with cutaneous head and neck melanoma.

Material And Methods: A retrospective study was conducted from February 2010 to June 2013 on 22 consecutive patients with a diagnosis of cutaneous head and neck melanoma (9 female, 13 male), with a mean age of 55 years old and who met the inclusion criteria for SLN biopsy. Patients underwent preoperative scanning after peri-scar injection of (99m)Tc-labeled-nanocolloid.

18F-FDG PET/CT in Extranodal Burkitt Lymphoma.

Burkitt lymphoma (BL) is a poorly differentiated non-Hodgkin B-cell lymphoma, more frequent in children than in adults. The extranodal debut of the disease is rare. We report a 43-year-old male patient with history of dyspnea.

The role of 18FDG, 18FDOPA PET/CT and 99mTc bone scintigraphy imaging in Erdheim-Chester disease.

Erdheim-Chester disease (ECD) is a rare non-Langerhans cell histiocitosis, characterized by multisystemic xanthogranulomatous infiltration by foamy histiocytes that stain positively for CD68 marker but not express CD1a and S100 proteins. Etiology and pathogenesis are still unknown and only about 500 cases are related in the literature. Multisystemic involvement leads to a wide variety of clinical manifestations that results in a poor prognosis although recent advances in treatment.