Interventional nuclear medicine: a focus on radioguided intervention and surgery.

Within interventional nuclear medicine (iNM) a prominent role is allocated for the sub-discipline of radioguided surgery. Unique for this discipline is the fact that an increasing number of clinical indications (e.g.

Melanoma & nuclear medicine: new insights & advances.

The contribution of nuclear medicine to management of melanoma patients is increasing. In intermediate-thickness N0 melanomas, lymphoscintigraphy provides a roadmap for sentinel node biopsy. With the introduction of single-photon emission computed tomography images with integrated computed tomography (SPECT/CT), 3D anatomic environments for accurate surgical planning are now possible.

Initial experience of SPECT/CT in the diagnosis of occult scaphoid fracture.

Background: *Equal contributors.Planar bone scintigraphy (PBS) is often advocated for diagnosing occult scaphoid fractures. PBS is a sensitive diagnostic modality, but lacks specificity, which may result in over-diagnosis.

The next evolution in radioguided surgery: breast cancer related sentinel node localization using a freehandSPECT-mobile gamma camera combination.

Accurate pre- and intraoperative identification of the sentinel node (SN) forms the basis of the SN biopsy procedure. Gamma tracing technologies such as a gamma probe (GP), a 2D mobile gamma camera (MGC) or 3D freehandSPECT (FHS) can be used to provide the surgeon with radioguidance to the SN(s). We reasoned that integrated use of these technologies results in the generation of a "hybrid" modality that combines the best that the individual radioguidance technologies have to offer.

Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy in Vulvar Cancer Using Combined Radioactive and Fluorescence Guidance.

Objective: Near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence imaging using indocyanine green (ICG) has recently been introduced to improve the sentinel lymph node (SLN) procedure. Several optical tracers have been successfully tested. However, the optimal tracer formulation is still unknown.

Mediastinal lymph node uptake in patients with prostate carcinoma on F18-choline PET/CT.

Summary: Fluorine-18-methyl-choline (F18-choline) PET/computed tomography (CT) is routinely performed in our hospital for patients with significantly increased or rapidly increasing prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels to detect and localize recurrent prostate carcinoma. We observed uptake of this PET tracer in mediastinal lymph nodes in a significant number of patients. The aim of this study was to assess the frequency of this finding and to determine whether it is correlated with tumour and nontumour-related aspects.

Somatostatin receptor scintigraphy and chromogranin A assay in staging and follow-up of patients with well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors.

Introduction: Chromogranin A (CgA) assay and somatostatin receptor scintigraphy (SRS) are implemented in the standard workup of neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). The aim of this study was to assess the value of SRS and CgA in staging and follow-up patients with well-differentiated NETs.

Materials And Methods: A total of 88 consecutive patients with histologically confirmed well-differentiated NETs were included.