Towards the OR of the future: introducing an adaptive and technology-embracing OR wing layout.

Purpose: Overageing and climate change cause a need for making processes in the operating room wing (OR wing) more efficient. While many promising technologies are available today, traditional OR wings are not designed for seamlessly integrating these aids. To overcome this discrepancy, we present and motivate multiple ideas on how to transform current architectural design strategies.

The hospital of the future: rethinking architectural design to enable new patient-centered treatment concepts.

Purpose: Today's hospitals are designed as collections of individual departments, with limited communication and collaboration between medical sub-specialties. Patients are constantly being moved between different places, which is detrimental for patient experience, overall efficiency and capacity. Instead, we argue that care should be brought to the patient, not vice versa, and thus propose a novel hospital architecture concept that we refer to as Patient Hub.

A semantic database for integrated management of image and dosimetric data in low radiation dose research in medical imaging.

Medical ionizing radiation procedures and especially medical imaging are a non negligible source of exposure to patients. Whereas the biological effects of high absorbed doses are relatively well known, the effects of low absorbed doses are still debated. This work presents the development of a computer platform called Image and Radiation Dose BioBank (IRDBB) to manage research data produced in the context of the MEDIRAD project, a European project focusing on research on low doses in the context of medical procedures.

A Comparison of Two Statistical Mapping Tools for Automated Brain FDG-PET Analysis in Predicting Conversion to Alzheimer's Disease in Subjects with Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Objective: Automated voxel-based analysis methods are used to detect cortical hypometabolism typical of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) on FDG-PET brain scans. We compared the accuracy of two clinically validated tools for their ability to identify those MCI subjects progressing to AD at followup, to evaluate the impact of the analysis method on FDG-PET diagnostic performance.

Methods: SPMGrid and BRASS (Hermes Medical Solutions, Stockholm, Sweden) were tested on 131 MCI and elderly healthy controls from the EADC PET dataset.

A multicentric IT platform for storage and sharing of imaging-based radiation dosimetric data.

Purpose: The MEDIRAD project is about the effects of low radiation dose in the context of medical procedures. The goal of the work is to develop an informatics service that will provide the researchers of the MEDIRAD project with a platform to share acquired images, along with the associated dosimetric data pertaining to the radiation resulting from the procedure.

Methods: The authors designed a system architecture to manage image data and dosimetric data in an integrated way.

Higher availability of α4β2 nicotinic receptors (nAChRs) in dorsal ACC is linked to more efficient interference control.

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are widely distributed in the human brain and play an important role in the neuromodulation of brain networks implicated in attentional processes. Previous work in humans showed that heteromeric α4β2 nAChRs are abundant in the cingulo-insular network underlying attentional control. It has been proposed that cholinergic neuromodulation by α4β2 nAChRs is involved in attentional control during demanding tasks, when additional resources are needed to minimize interference from task-irrelevant stimuli and focus on task-relevant stimuli.

Integrating radiomics into holomics for personalised oncology: from algorithms to bedside.

Radiomics, artificial intelligence, and deep learning figure amongst recent buzzwords in current medical imaging research and technological development. Analysis of medical big data in assessment and follow-up of personalised treatments has also become a major research topic in the area of precision medicine. In this review, current research trends in radiomics are analysed, from handcrafted radiomics feature extraction and statistical analysis to deep learning.

Recurrent prostate cancer after radical prostatectomy: restaging performance of 18F-choline hybrid PET/MRI.

To evaluate the diagnostic performance of a whole-body 18F-choline (FCH) hybrid PET/MRI for prostate cancer patients at biochemical relapse after radical prostatectomy (RP) compared to pelvic multiparametric MRI (mpMRI), one of the standard imaging modality for this patient population. From 2010 to 2016, 58 whole-body FCH PET/MRI studies with mpMRI acquisitions were performed in 53 prostate cancer patients relapsing after curative RP. Median PSA and PSA doubling time (PSA DT) at PET study were 1.

Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Density in the "Higher-Order" Thalamus Projecting to the Prefrontal Cortex in Humans: a PET Study.

Purpose: The parcellation of the thalamus into different nuclei involved in different corticothalamocortical loops reflects its functional diversity. The connections between the mediodorsal nucleus and the prefrontal cortex play a major role in cognition, particularly in the rapid processing of behaviorally relevant information. The thalamus is the brain region with the highest density in α4β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, the main human nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subtype.

Nicotinic receptor abnormalities as a biomarker in idiopathic generalized epilepsy.

Purpose: Mutations of cholinergic neuronal nicotinic receptors have been identified in the autosomal dominant nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy (ADNFLE), associated with changes on PET images using [F]-F-85380-A (F-A-85380), an α4β2 nicotinic receptor ligand. The aim of the present study was to evaluate potential changes in nicotinic receptor availability in other types of epilepsy.

Methods: We included 34 male participants, 12 patients with idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE), 10 with non-lesional diurnal focal epilepsy, and 12 age-matched healthy controls.

Prognostic value of revascularising viable myocardium in elderly patients with stable coronary artery disease and left ventricular dysfunction: a PET/CT study.

Sparse information is available on the role of cardiac viability imaging in elderly patients. We aimed at evaluating the prognostic value of FDG-PET/CT in elderly patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD) and reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (rLVEF) before revascularisation. Elderly patients (> 65 years old, mean 74 ± 7 years old) with CAD and rLVEF were followed after cardiac FDG-PET/CT and stratified according to presence/absence of viable myocardium and subsequent revascularisation.

Pannexin1 links lymphatic function to lipid metabolism and atherosclerosis.

Extracellular ATP is a central signaling molecule in inflammatory responses. Pannexin1 (Panx1) channels release ATP in a controlled manner and have been implicated in various inflammatory pathologies, but their role in atherogenesis remains elusive. Using atherosclerosis-susceptible mouse models with ubiquitous deletion of Panx1 (Panx1 Apoe ) or with Cre recombinase-mediated deletion of Panx1 in endothelial cells and monocytes (Tie2-Cre Panx1 Apoe ; Panx1 Apoe ), we identified a novel role for Panx1 in the lymphatic vasculature.

Local recurrence of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck after radio(chemo)therapy: Diagnostic performance of FDG-PET/MRI with diffusion-weighted sequences.

Purpose: To determine the diagnostic performance of FDG-PET/MRI with diffusion-weighted imaging (FDG-PET/DWIMRI) for detection and local staging of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) after radio(chemo)therapy.

Materials And Methods: This was a prospective study that included 74 consecutive patients with previous radio(chemo)therapy for HNSCC and in whom tumour recurrence or radiation-induced complications were suspected clinically. The patients underwent hybrid PET/MRI examinations with morphological MRI, DWI and FDG-PET.

Whole-Body SPECT/CT versus Planar Bone Scan with Targeted SPECT/CT for Metastatic Workup.

Purpose: The use of SPECT/CT in bone scans has been widespread in recent years, but there are no specific guidelines concerning the optimal acquisition protocol. Two strategies have been proposed: targeted SPECT/CT for equivocal lesions detected on planar images or systematic whole-body SPECT/CT. Our aim was to compare the diagnostic accuracy of the two approaches.

Strategic roadmap for an early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease based on biomarkers.

The diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease can be improved by the use of biological measures. Biomarkers of functional impairment, neuronal loss, and protein deposition that can be assessed by neuroimaging (ie, MRI and PET) or CSF analysis are increasingly being used to diagnose Alzheimer's disease in research studies and specialist clinical settings. However, the validation of the clinical usefulness of these biomarkers is incomplete, and that is hampering reimbursement for these tests by health insurance providers, their widespread clinical implementation, and improvements in quality of health care.

Downstream indication to revascularization following hybrid cardiac PET/MRI: preliminary results.

Background: Hybrid PET/MRI allows the acquisition of both fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose (F-FDG) PET and cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) during one session. Whether this will result in different referral to coronary revascularization (CR) is unknown. We compared this new hybrid method with all-nuclear/all-CMR methods in the assessment of viable myocardium and in downstream referral to CR.

Clinical validity of presynaptic dopaminergic imaging with I-ioflupane and noradrenergic imaging with I-MIBG in the differential diagnosis between Alzheimer's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies in the context of a structured 5-phase development framework.

The use of biomarkers (BMs) for accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been proposed by recent diagnostic criteria; however, their maturity is not sufficient to grant implementation in the clinical routine. A proper diagnostic process requires not only confirmation of the disease but also the exclusion of similar disorders entering differential diagnosis, like dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). This review is aimed at evaluating the clinical validity of I-ioflupane brain single photon emission tomography and I-MIBG cardiac scintigraphy as imaging BMs for DLB.

Clinical validity of brain fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography as a biomarker for Alzheimer's disease in the context of a structured 5-phase development framework.

The use of Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers is supported in diagnostic criteria, but their maturity for clinical routine is still debated. Here, we evaluate brain fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG PET), a measure of cerebral glucose metabolism, as a biomarker to identify clinical and prodromal AD according to the framework suggested for biomarkers in oncology, using homogenous criteria with other biomarkers addressed in parallel reviews. FDG PET has fully achieved phase 1 (rational for use) and most of phase 2 (ability to discriminate AD subjects from healthy controls or other forms of dementia) aims.

Long-term Results of a Comparative PET/CT and PET/MRI Study of 11C-Acetate and 18F-Fluorocholine for Restaging of Early Recurrent Prostate Cancer.

Purpose: The aims of this study were to assess the intraindividual performance of F-fluorocholine (FCH) and C-acetate (ACE) PET studies for restaging of recurrent prostate cancer (PCa), to correlate PET findings with long-term clinical and imaging follow-up, and to evaluate the impact of PET results on patient management.

Methods: Thirty-three PCa patients relapsing after radical prostatectomy (n = 10, prostate-specific antigen [PSA] ≤3 ng/mL), primary radiotherapy (n = 8, prostate-specific antigen ≤5 ng/mL), or radical prostatectomy + salvage radiotherapy (n = 15) underwent ACE and FCH PET-CT (n = 29) or PET-MRI (n = 4) studies in a randomized sequence 0 to 21 days apart.

Results: The detection rate for ACE was 66% and for FCH was 60%.

PACS for Bhutan: a cost effective open source architecture for emerging countries.

Unlabelled: This paper reports the design and implementation of an innovative and cost-effective imaging management infrastructure suitable for radiology centres in emerging countries. It was implemented in the main referring hospital of Bhutan equipped with a CT, an MRI, digital radiology, and a suite of several ultrasound units. They lacked the necessary informatics infrastructure for image archiving and interpretation and needed a system for distribution of images to clinical wards.

Target Definition in Salvage Radiotherapy for Recurrent Prostate Cancer: The Role of Advanced Molecular Imaging.

Salvage radiotherapy (SRT) represents the main treatment option for relapsing prostate cancer in patients after radical prostatectomy. Several open questions remain unanswered in terms of target volumes definition and delivered doses for SRT: the effective dose necessary to achieve biochemical control in the SRT setting may be different if the tumor recurrence is micro- or macroscopic. At the same time, irradiation of only the prostatic bed or of the whole pelvis will depend on the localization of the recurrence, local or locoregional.

Adapting anatomy teaching to surgical trends: a combination of classical dissection, medical imaging, and 3D-printing technologies.

Purpose: Many regions worldwide report difficulties in recruiting applicants to surgery. One strategy proposed to reverse this trend consists of early exposure of medical students to the field. Against this backdrop, the present study presents an innovative approach for anatomy teaching, integrating a surgically relevant trend: 3D printing.