Implementation of the European multicentre database of healthy controls for [(123)I]FP-CIT SPECT increases diagnostic accuracy in patients with clinically uncertain parkinsonian syndromes.

Purpose: Even though [(123)I]FP-CIT SPECT provides high accuracy in detecting nigrostriatal cell loss in neurodegenerative parkinsonian syndromes (PS), some patients with an inconclusive diagnosis remain. We investigated whether the diagnostic accuracy in patients with clinically uncertain PS with previously inconclusive findings can be improved by the use of iterative reconstruction algorithms and an improved semiquantitative evaluation which additionally implemented a correction algorithm for patient age and gamma camera dependency (EARL-BRASS; Hermes Medical Solutions, Sweden).

Methods: We identified 101 patients with inconclusive findings who underwent an [(123)I]FP-CIT SPECT between 2003 and 2010 as part of the diagnostic process of suspected PS at the University of Munich, and re-evaluated these scans using iterative reconstruction algorithms and the new corrected EARL-BRASS.

Surgical outcome in patients with MRI-negative, PET-positive temporal lobe epilepsy.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the long-term surgical outcomes of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-negative, fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET)-positive patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and compare them with those of patients with mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS).

Methods: One hundred forty-one patients with TLE who underwent anterior temporal lobectomy were included in the study. The surgical outcomes of 24 patients with unilateral temporal hypometabolism on FDG-PET without an epileptogenic lesion on MRI were compared with that of patients with unilateral temporal hypometabolism on FDG-PET with MTS on MRI (n=117).

Is there any impact of PET/CT on radiotherapy planning in rectal cancer patients undergoing preoperative IMRT?

Background/aim: To investigate the effect of positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT)-based contouring on dosimetric parameters in rectal cancer patients undergoing preoperative intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT).

Materials And Methods: Preoperative radiation therapy plans with conformal radiotherapy (CRT) or IMRT were created and examined according to the CT- and PET/CT-based contouring of 20 rectal cancer patients, retrospectively.

Results: The target volumes delineated with PET/CT were significantlylarger than the volumes created by CT (P= 0.

Brain 18F-FDG PET imaging in the differential diagnosis of parkinsonism.

Aim: The aims in this study were to evaluate the role of brain F-FDG PET imaging in differential diagnosis of parkinsonism and to correlate brain metabolism findings with patients' clinical findings.

Methods: Brain F-FDG PET images were evaluated both visually and quantitatively using the NeuroQ software in 21 parkinsonism patients in whom final clinical diagnoses were established.

Results: Final clinical diagnoses were idiopathic Parkinson disease in 7, multisystem atrophy (MSA) in 7, progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) in 4, corticobasal degeneration in 2, and Lewy body disease in 1 patient.

Liver schwannoma incidentally discovered in a patient with breast cancer.

Background: Benign schwannomas, also referred to as neurilemomas, neurinomas, and perineural fibroblastomas, are encapsulated nerve sheath tumors. Primary schwannomas of the liver are extremely rare. We present a case of liver schwannoma, incidentally found in a patient with breast cancer.