Publications by authors named "Maeve McGarry"

The aim of this overview was to consolidate existing evidence syntheses and provide a comprehensive overview of the evidence for F-prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) PET/CT in the staging of high-risk prostate cancer and restaging after biochemical recurrence. An overview of reviews was performed and reported in line with the preferred reporting items for overview of reviews (PRIOR) statement and synthesis without meta-analysis (SWiM) reporting guidelines. A comprehensive database and grey literature search were conducted up to July 18, 2023.

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Correct staging and risk stratification is essential in ensuring prostate cancer patients are offered the most appropriate treatment. Interest has been growing in the use of radiotracers targeting prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA), including the use of F-PSMA PET-CT, as part of the primary staging or restaging of prostate cancer. Preliminary scoping identified a number of relevant systematic reviews and meta-analyses; however, individually, these each appear to look at only part of the picture.

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Objectives: The aim of this work was to establish national diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) in Ireland and compare these to existing European DRLs where available. This work surveyed all radiological facilities providing radiography, mammography, and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) services in Ireland.

Methods: A list of common procedures and clinical tasks was established.

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Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is increasingly being used for improving tumor delineation and tumor tracking in the presence of respiratory motion. The purpose of this work is to design and build an MR compatible motion platform and to use it for evaluating the geometric accuracy of MR imaging techniques during respiratory motion. The motion platform presented in this work is composed of a mobile base made up of a flat plate and four wheels.

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Purpose: To create a synthetic CT (sCT) from conventional brain MRI using a patch-based method for MRI-only radiotherapy planning and verification.

Methods: Conventional T1 and T2-weighted MRI and CT datasets from 13 patients who underwent brain radiotherapy were included in a retrospective study whereas 6 patients were tested prospectively. A new contribution to the Non-local Means Patch-Based Method (NMPBM) framework was done with the use of novel multi-scale and dual-contrast patches.

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Objective: To develop a method for the assessment and characterization of 3D geometric distortion as part of routine quality assurance for MRI scanners commissioned for Radiation Therapy planning.

Materials And Methods: In this study, the in-plane and through-plane geometric distortions on a 1.5T GE MRI-SIM unit are characterized and the 2D and 3D correction algorithms provided by the vendor are evaluated.

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Objective: To develop and validate a large field of view phantom and quality assurance software tool for the assessment and characterization of geometric distortion in MRI scanners commissioned for radiation therapy planning.

Materials And Methods: A purpose built phantom was developed consisting of 357 rods (6mm in diameter) of polymethyl-methacrylat separated by 20mm intervals, providing a three dimensional array of control points at known spatial locations covering a large field of view up to a diameter of 420mm. An in-house software module was developed to allow automatic geometric distortion assessment.

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Purpose: Organ motion is a contributory factor to the variation in location of the prostate and organs at risk during a course of fractionated prostate radiation therapy (RT). A prospective randomized controlled trial was designed with the primary endpoint to provide evidence-based bladder-filling instructions to achieve a consistent bladder volume (BV) and thus reduce the bladder-related organ motion. The secondary endpoints were to assess the incidence of acute and late genitourinary (GU) and gastrointestinal (GI) toxicity for patients and patients' satisfaction with the bladder-filling instructions.

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