Correlation between 18F-FDG PET/CT and diffusion-weighted MRI parameters in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma at baseline and after chemo-radiotherapy. A retrospective single institutional study.

Objectives: The relationship between glucose metabolism and tumor cellularity before chemo-radiotherapy in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) has never been compared with that of patients evaluated after treatment. This retrospective study analyzed the correlation between glucose metabolism parameters expressed by standardized uptake value (SUV) derived from 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) PET/CT and cellularity tumor parameters expressed by apparent diffusion coefficients (ADC) derived from diffusion-weighted (DW) MRI in untreated and treated patients with head and neck SCC.

Methods: In 19 patients with no previous exposure to any treatment and 17 different chemo-radiotreated patients with head and neck SCC, we correlated the semi-quantitative uptake values (SUVmax, SUVpeak, and SUVmean) with the ADC functional parameters (ADCmin, ADCmean) including the standard deviation of ADC values (ADCsd).

SPECT/CT with 99mTc labelled heat-denatured erythrocyte to detect thoracic and abdominal splenosis.

Scintigraphy with 99mTc labelled heat-denatured erythrocyte (DRBC) allows non invasive diagnosis of heterotopic splenic tissue implantation (splenosis) following splenic trauma or surgery. Single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) combined with computed tomography (CT) improves diagnostic accuracy of planar imaging through a more precise localization of functional findings. We report about two cases of splenosis occurring many years after splenectomy.

Unknown SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia detected by PET/CT in patients with cancer.

Introduction: In January 2020, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in Italy necessitated rigorous application of more restrictive safety procedures in the management and treatment of patients with cancer to ensure patient and staff protection. Identification of respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection was a challenge during the pandemic owing to a large number of asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic patients.

Methods: We report 5 patients with unknown SARS-CoV-2 infection undergoing positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) with radiopharmaceuticals targeting different tumor processes: F-FDG, F-choline (FCH), and Ga-PSMA.