Manual and semi-automated approaches to MIBG myocardial scintigraphy in patients with Parkinson's disease.

Objective: This study investigates the effects of manual and semi-automatic methods for assessing MIBG semi-quantitative indices in a clinical setting.

Materials And Methods: We included I-MIBG scans obtained in 35 patients with idiopathic Parkinson's Disease. Early and late heart-to-mediastinum (H/M) ratios were calculated from I-MIBG images using regions of interest (ROIs) placed over the heart and the mediastinum.

Brain Metabolism and Amyloid Load in Individuals With Subjective Cognitive Decline or Pre-Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Background And Objective: This was a multicenter study aimed at investigating the characteristics of cognitive decline, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and brain imaging in individuals with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) and subtle cognitive decline (pre-mild cognitive impairment [pre-MCI]).

Methods: Data were obtained from the Network-AD project (NET-2011-02346784). The included participants underwent baseline cognitive and neurobehavioral evaluation, FDG-PET, and amyloid PET.

Evaluation of a 2D UNet-Based Attenuation Correction Methodology for PET/MR Brain Studies.

Deep learning (DL) strategies applied to magnetic resonance (MR) images in positron emission tomography (PET)/MR can provide synthetic attenuation correction (AC) maps, and consequently PET images, more accurate than segmentation or atlas-registration strategies. As first objective, we aim to investigate the best MR image to be used and the best point of the AC pipeline to insert the synthetic map in. Sixteen patients underwent a 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET/computed tomography (CT) and a PET/MR brain study in the same day.

Brain metabolic signatures across the Alzheimer's disease spectrum.

Purpose: Given the challenges posed by the clinical diagnosis of atypical Alzheimer's disease (AD) variants and the limited imaging evidence available in the prodromal phases of atypical AD, we assessed brain hypometabolism patterns at the single-subject level in the AD variants spectrum. Specifically, we tested the accuracy of [F]FDG-PET brain hypometabolism, as a biomarker of neurodegeneration, in supporting the differential diagnosis of atypical AD variants in individuals with dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Methods: We retrospectively collected N = 67 patients with a diagnosis of typical AD and AD variants according to the IWG-2 criteria (22 typical-AD, 15 frontal variant-AD, 14 logopenic variant-AD and 16 posterior variant-AD).

Early variation of 18-fluorine-labelled fluorodeoxyglucose PET-derived parameters after chemoradiotherapy as predictors of survival in locally advanced pancreatic carcinoma patients.

Objective: To investigate if early variation of PET-derived parameters after concomitant chemoradiotherapy (CRT) predicts overall survival (OS), local relapse free survival (LRFS), distant relapse free survival (DRFS) and progression free survival (PFS) in locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC) patients.

Methods: Fifty-two LAPC patients (median age: 61 years; range: 35-85) with available FDG PET/CT before and after RT (2-6 months, median: 2) were enrolled from May 2005 to June 2015. The predictive value of the percentage variation of mean/maximum standard uptake value (ΔSUVmean/max), metabolic tumour volume (ΔMTV) and total lesion glycolysis (ΔTLG), estimated considering different uptake thresholds (40-50-60%), was investigated between pre- and post-RT PET.

Testing the diagnostic accuracy of [18F]FDG-PET in discriminating spinal- and bulbar-onset amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Purpose: The role for [18F]FDG-PET in supporting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) diagnosis is not fully established. In this study, we aim at evaluating [18F]FDG-PET hypo- and hyper-metabolism patterns in spinal- and bulbar-onset ALS cases, at the single-subject level, testing the diagnostic value in discriminating the two conditions, and the correlations with core clinical symptoms severity.

Methods: We included 95 probable-ALS patients with [18F]FDG-PET scan and clinical follow-up.

Unfavourable gender effect of high body mass index on brain metabolism and connectivity.

The influence of Body Mass Index (BMI) on neurodegeneration in dementia has yet to be elucidated. We aimed at exploring the effects of BMI levels on cerebral resting-state metabolism and brain connectivity, as crucial measures of synaptic function and activity, in a large group of patients with Alzheimer's Dementia (AD) (n = 206), considering gender. We tested the correlation between BMI levels and brain metabolism, as assessed by F-FDG-PET, and the modulation of the resting-state functional networks by BMI.

Low-dose CT for the spatial normalization of PET images: A validation procedure for amyloid-PET semi-quantification.

The reference standard for spatial normalization of brain positron emission tomography (PET) images involves structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) data. However, the lack of such structural information is fairly common in clinical settings. This might lead to lack of proper image quantification and to evaluation based only on visual ratings, which does not allow research studies or clinical trials based on quantification.

FDG-PET/CT Predicts Outcome in Oropharingeal Carcinoma Patients Undergoing Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy with Dose Escalation to FDG-avid Tumour Volumes.

Objective: To evaluate the predictive value of FDG-PET/CT parameters on outcome of oropharyngeal squamocellular cancer (OSCC) patients undergoing helical tomotherapy (HTT), with dose escalation to FDG-PET/CT positive tumour volumes using the simultaneous integrated boost (SIB) technique.

Materials And Methods: We analysed 41 patients studied by FDG-PET/CT and treated with radical intent between 2005 and 2014 for OSCC. HTT-SIB was delivered in 30 fractions concomitantly: 69 Gy, as SIB, to the PET-positive volume (biological target volume - BTV-PET), both to the primary tumour (T) and lymph nodes (N), 66 Gy to the T and positive N, 54 Gy to the laterocervical nodes at risk.

Simultaneous PET-MRI Studies of the Concordance of Atrophy and Hypometabolism in Syndromic Variants of Alzheimer's Disease and Frontotemporal Dementia: An Extended Case Series.

Background: Simultaneous PET-MRI is used to compare patterns of cerebral hypometabolism and atrophy in six different dementia syndromes.

Objectives: The primary objective was to conduct an initial exploratory study regarding the concordance of atrophy and hypometabolism in syndromic variants of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). The secondary objective was to determine the effect of image analysis methods on determination of atrophy and hypometabolism.

Validation of an optimized SPM procedure for FDG-PET in dementia diagnosis in a clinical setting.

Diagnostic accuracy in FDG-PET imaging highly depends on the operating procedures. In this clinical study on dementia, we compared the diagnostic accuracy at a single-subject level of a) Clinical Scenarios, b) Standard FDG Images and c) Statistical Parametrical (SPM) Maps generated via a new optimized SPM procedure. We evaluated the added value of FDG-PET, either Standard FDG Images or SPM Maps, to Clinical Scenarios.