Diagnostic Efficacy of Iodo-Metaiodobenzylguanidine SPECT/CT in Cardiac vs. Neurological Diseases: A Comparative Study of Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy and α-Synucleinopathies.

: Iodo-metaiodobenzylguanidine single photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography (I-MIBG SPECT/CT) is used to evaluate the cardiac sympathetic nervous system in cardiac diseases such as arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) and α-synucleinopathies such as Parkinson's diseases. A common feature of these diseases is denervation. We aimed to compare quantitative and semi-quantitative cardiac sympathetic innervation using I-MIBG imaging of ARVC and α-synucleinopathies.

Validity and value of metabolic connectivity in mouse models of β-amyloid and tauopathy.

Among functional imaging methods, metabolic connectivity (MC) is increasingly used for investigation of regional network changes to examine the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) or movement disorders. Hitherto, MC was mostly used in clinical studies, but only a few studies demonstrated the usefulness of MC in the rodent brain. The goal of the current work was to analyze and validate metabolic regional network alterations in three different mouse models of neurodegenerative diseases (β-amyloid and tau) by use of 2-deoxy-2-[F]fluoro-d-glucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) imaging.

Artificial intelligence-based analysis of body composition predicts outcome in patients receiving long-term mechanical circulatory support.

Background: Obesity is a known cardiovascular risk factor and associated with higher postoperative complication rates in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. In heart failure (HF), conflicting evidence in terms of survival has been reported, whereas sarcopenia is associated with poor prognosis. An increasing number of HF patients require left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantations.

The assessment of left ventricular volume and function in gated small animal F-FDG PET/CT imaging: a comparative study of three commercially available software tools.

Background: Several software tools have been developed for gated PET imaging that use distinct algorithms to analyze tracer uptake, myocardial perfusion, and left ventricle volumes and function. Studies suggest that different software tools cannot be used interchangeably in humans. In this study, we sought to compare the left ventricular parameters in gated F-FDG PET/CT imaging in mice by three commercially available software tools: PMOD, MIM, and QGS.

Assessment of synaptic loss in mouse models of β-amyloid and tau pathology using [F]UCB-H PET imaging.

Objective: In preclinical research, the use of [F]Fluorodesoxyglucose (FDG) as a biomarker for neurodegeneration may induce bias due to enhanced glucose uptake by immune cells. In this study, we sought to investigate synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2A (SV2A) PET with [F]UCB-H as an alternative preclinical biomarker for neurodegenerative processes in two mouse models representing the pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Methods: A total of 29 PS2APP, 20 P301S and 12 wild-type mice aged 4.