Review of the Clinical and Technical Aspects of Tc-Dimercaptosuccinic Acid Renal Imaging: The Comeback "Kit".

Tc-labeled dimercaptosuccinic acid (Tc-DMSA) imaging is a well-established and highly sensitive method for the diagnosis of several renal cortical disorders affecting children and adults. Beginning in 2014, Tc-DMSA availability was severely impaired when it was added to the Drug Shortages List of the U.S.

Girth-based administered activity for pediatric Tc-DMSA SPECT.

Background: Pediatric molecular imaging requires a balance between administering an activity that will yield sufficient diagnostic image quality while maintaining patient radiation exposure at acceptable levels. In current clinical practice, this balance is arrived at by the current North American Consensus Guidelines in which patient weight is used to recommend the administered activity (AA).

Purpose: We have previously demonstrated that girth (waist circumference at the level of the kidneys) is better at equalizing image quality than patient weight for pediatric Tc-99m DMSA renal function imaging.

Fetal Dose from PET and CT in Pregnant Patients.

When pregnancy is discovered during or after a diagnostic examination, the physician or the patient may request an estimate of the radiation dose received by the fetus as per guidelines and standard operating procedures. This study provided the imaging community with dose estimates to the fetus from PET/CT with protocols that are adapted to University of Michigan low-dose protocols for patients known to be pregnant. There were 9 patients analyzed with data for the first, second, and third trimesters, the availability of which is quite rare.

Joint EANM/SIOPE/RAPNO practice guidelines/SNMMI procedure standards for imaging of paediatric gliomas using PET with radiolabelled amino acids and [F]FDG: version 1.0.

Positron emission tomography (PET) has been widely used in paediatric oncology. 2-Deoxy-2-[F]fluoro-D-glucose ([F]FDG) is the most commonly used radiopharmaceutical for PET imaging. For oncological brain imaging, different amino acid PET radiopharmaceuticals have been introduced in the last years.

Development and autoregulation of kidney function in children: a retrospective study using Tc-MAG3 renography.

Background: Both the development of kidney function in healthy children and autoregulation ability of kidney function in patients with asymmetric kidneys are important in clinical diagnosis and treatment of kidney-related diseases, but there are however only limited studies. This study aimed to investigate development of kidney function in normal children with healthy symmetric kidneys and autoregulation of the healthy kidney compensating the functional loss of a diseased one in children with asymmetric kidneys.

Methods: Two hundred thirty-seven children (156 male, 81 female) from 0 to 20y (average 4.

Radiation Dose to Pediatric Patients From Radiopharmaceuticals.

Nuclear medicine provides methods and techniques in that has benefited pediatric patients and their referring physicians for over 40 years. Nuclear medicine provides qualitative and quantitative information about overall and regional function of organs, systems, and lesions in the body. This involves applications in many organ systems including the skeleton, the brain, the kidneys and the heart as well as in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

Impact of reconstruction parameters on lesion detection and localization in joint ictal/inter-ictal SPECT reconstruction.

Purpose: Previously, a joint ictal/inter-ictal SPECT reconstruction was proposed to reconstruct a differential image representing the change of brain SPECT image from an inter-ictal to an ictal study. The so-called joint method yielded better performance for epileptic foci localization than the conventional subtraction method. In this study, we evaluated the performance of different reconstruction settings of the joint reconstruction of ictal/inter-ictal SPECT data, which creates a differential image showing the difference between ictal and inter-ictal images, in lesion detection and localization in epilepsy imaging.

Renal Tc-DMSA pharmacokinetics in pediatric patients.

Unlabelled: Tc-DMSA is one of the most commonly used pediatric nuclear medicine imaging agents. Nevertheless, there are no pharmacokinetic (PK) models for Tc-DMSA in children, and currently available pediatric dose estimates for Tc-DMSA use pediatric S values with PK data derived from adults. Furthermore, the adult PK data were collected in the mid-70's using quantification techniques and instrumentation available at the time.

Residency training for diagnostic imaging physicists should be expanded to include nuclear medicine physics.

The American Board of Radiology offers certification in three specialties of medical physics: Therapeutic Medical Physics, Diagnostic Medical Physics, and Nuclear Medical Physics. Of these specialties, medical nuclear physics has the fewest active diplomates, only a few hundred. The diagnostic medical physics specialty certification incudes a variety of modalities (ultrasound, radiography, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging) yet does not address nuclear medicine imaging or therapy.

Detecting lumbar lesions in Tc-MDP SPECT by deep learning: Comparison with physicians.

Purpose: Tc-MDP single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) is an established tool for diagnosing lumbar stress, a common cause of low back pain (LBP) in pediatric patients. However, detection of small stress lesions is complicated by the low quality of SPECT, leading to significant interreader variability. The study objectives were to develop an approach based on a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) for detecting lumbar lesions in Tc-MDP scans and to compare its performance to that of physicians in a localization receiver operating characteristic (LROC) study.

PET/computed tomography in inpatients: part 1, international survey.

Purpose: The purposes of this study are to (1) identify patterns of inpatient PET/computed tomography (CT) use in and outside of the USA and (2) characterize inpatient PET/CT use by location and indication.

Materials And Methods: The study was deemed exempt by the Institutional Review Board. A survey link through REDCap was emailed to the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) members and PET Centers of Excellence members and posted on the SNMMI website.

Developing and implementing a multi-modality imaging optimization study in paediatric radiology: Experience and recommendations from an IAEA coordinated research project.

Optimization of imaging examinations is a key requirement of both the International and European Basic Safety Standards, and the focus of much international activity. Although methodologies are well established in principle, there continues to be a variety of practical issues both in collecting and interpreting dose and image quality data and in making successful interventions to optimize exposures. A Coordinated Research Project, involving institutes from ten different countries, was established by the IAEA to assess the efficacy of recommended optimization methodologies in the field of paediatric radiology and to derive practical guidance on their implementation.

Celebrating eighty years of radionuclide therapy and the work of Saul Hertz.

March 2021 will mark the eightieth anniversary of targeted radionuclide therapy, recognizing the first use of radioactive iodine to treat thyroid disease by Dr. Saul Hertz on March 31, 1941. The breakthrough of Dr.

DeepAMO: a multi-slice, multi-view anthropomorphic model observer for visual detection tasks performed on volume images.

We propose a deep learning-based anthropomorphic model observer (DeepAMO) for image quality evaluation of multi-orientation, multi-slice image sets with respect to a clinically realistic 3D defect detection task. The DeepAMO is developed based on a hypothetical model of the decision process of a human reader performing a detection task using a 3D volume. The DeepAMO is comprised of three sequential stages: defect segmentation, defect confirmation (DC), and rating value inference.

Body morphometry appropriate computational phantoms for dose and risk optimization in pediatric renal imaging with Tc-99m DMSA and Tc-99m MAG3.

Current guidelines for administered activity (AA) in pediatric nuclear medicine imaging studies are based on a 2016 harmonization of the 2010 North American Consensus guidelines and the 2007 European Association of Nuclear Medicine pediatric dosage card. These guidelines assign AA scaled to patient body mass, with further constraints on maximum and minimum values of radiopharmaceutical activity. These guidelines, however, are not formulated based upon a rigor-ous evaluation of diagnostic image quality.

Pediatric Solid Gastric Emptying Scintigraphy: Normative Value Guidelines and Nonstandard Meal Alternatives.

Introduction: Adult standards for gastric emptying scintigraphy, including the type of meal and range of normative values for percent gastric emptying, are routinely used in pediatric practice, but to date have not been validated. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the use of adult criteria for gastric emptying scintigraphy is valid for children and whether alternative nonstandard meals can also be offered based on these criteria.

Methods: This retrospective study analyzed patients (n = 1,151 total) who underwent solid-phase gastric emptying scintigraphy.

Developing and Implementing an Imaging Optimization Study in Pediatric Nuclear Medicine: Experience and Recommendations from an IAEA-Coordinated Research Project.

The International Atomic Energy Agency instituted a coordinated research project on the evaluation and optimization of pediatric imaging, addressing the lack of consistency in this field. The purpose was to develop and test an optimization schema for the practices of pediatric radiology and nuclear medicine. A 5-step optimization schema was developed.

Ethical aspects in the use of radiation in medicine: update from ICRP Task Group 109.

Whereas scientific evidence is the basis for recommendations and guidance on radiological protection, professional ethics is critically important and should always guide professional behaviour. The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) established Task Group 109 to advise medical professionals, patients, families, carers, the public, and authorities about the ethical aspects of radiological protection of patients in the diagnostic and therapeutic use of radiation in medicine. Occupational exposures and research-related exposures are not within the scope of this task group.

Global Issues of Radiopharmaceutical Access and Availability: A Nuclear Medicine Global Initiative Project.

The Nuclear Medicine Global Initiative was formed in 2012 by 13 international organizations to promote human health by advancing the field of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging by supporting the practice and application of nuclear medicine. The first project focused on standardization of administered activities in pediatric nuclear medicine and resulted in 2 articles. For its second project the Nuclear Medicine Global Initiative chose to explore issues impacting on access and availability of radiopharmaceuticals around the world.

Paediatric nuclear medicine practice: an international survey by the IAEA.

Purpose: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) decided to initiate a survey to evaluate the current status of the practice of paediatric nuclear medicine worldwide, with the focus mainly on low and middle-income countries specifically in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia. This investigation sought to determine if the practice in paediatric nuclear medicine in these countries differed from that indicated by the survey of the Nuclear Medicine Global Initiative (NMGI) and if nuclear medicine practitioners were following established paediatric nuclear medicine guidelines.

Methods: A total of 133 institutes took part in the survey from 62 different IAEA member states within Africa (29), Asia (39), Europe (29) and Latin America (36).

Current pediatric administered activity guidelines for Tc-DMSA SPECT based on patient weight do not provide the same task-based image quality.

Purpose: In the current clinical practice, administered activity (AA) for pediatric molecular imaging is often based on the North American expert consensus guidelines or the European Association of Nuclear Medicine dosage card, both of which were developed based on the best clinical practice. These guidelines were not formulated using a rigorous evaluation of diagnostic image quality (IQ) relative to AA. In the guidelines, AA is determined by a weight-based scaling of the adult AA, along with minimum and maximum AA constraints.