Publications by authors named "Thomas Nakuz"

The phase-3 INDIGO trial demonstrated that the isocitrate dehydrogenase () inhibitor vorasidenib significantly prolonged progression-free survival and delayed intervention in patients with CNS WHO grade 2 gliomas. However, conventional MRI showed limited response, with only 11% of patients having objective responses. Studies suggest that serial PET imaging with radiolabeled amino acids, such as -(2-[ F]-fluoroethyl)-L-tyrosine (FET) PET, may provide earlier and more informative assessments of treatment response than MRI.

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Background: Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a common manifestation of idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) and a substantial contributor to hospitalisation, increased morbidity, and mortality. In-vivo evidence of ongoing tissue remodelling in IIM-ILD is scarce. We aimed to evaluate fibroblast activation in lungs of IIM-patients and control individuals using ⁶⁸Ga-labelled inhibitor of Fibroblast-Activation-Protein (FAPi) based positronic emission tomography and computed tomography imaging (PET/CT).

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Background: The diagnosis of cardiac amyloidosis can be established non-invasively by scintigraphy using bone-avid tracers, but visual assessment is subjective and can lead to misdiagnosis. We aimed to develop and validate an artificial intelligence (AI) system for standardised and reliable screening of cardiac amyloidosis-suggestive uptake and assess its prognostic value, using a multinational database of Tc-scintigraphy data across multiple tracers and scanners.

Methods: In this retrospective, international, multicentre, cross-tracer development and validation study, 16 241 patients with 19 401 scans were included from nine centres: one hospital in Austria (consecutive recruitment Jan 4, 2010, to Aug 19, 2020), five hospital sites in London, UK (consecutive recruitment Oct 1, 2014, to Sept 29, 2022), two centres in China (selected scans from Jan 1, 2021, to Oct 31, 2022), and one centre in Italy (selected scans from Jan 1, 2011, to May 23, 2023).

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Background In Crohn disease, differentiation between active intestinal inflammation and fibrosis has implications for treatment, but current imaging modalities are not reliably accurate. Purpose To evaluate the predictive value of gallium 68 (Ga)-labeled fibroblast activation protein inhibitor (FAPI) PET/MR enterography for the assessment of bowel wall fibrosis in Crohn disease. Materials and Methods In this prospective single-center study, consecutive participants with Crohn disease and obstructive symptoms underwent preoperative Ga-FAPI PET/MR enterography from May 2021 to January 2022.

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Article Synopsis
  • MOOSE software is designed for subject-specific, multiorgan segmentation using AI to enhance whole-body PET imaging research.
  • It was trained on data from 2 PET/CT systems, employing 50 whole-body CT images, including healthy and oncology patients, and 34 F-FDG PET/MRI brain image volumes for cerebral structures.
  • The segmentation performance was evaluated using the Dice score coefficient, with noncerebral tissues achieving an average Dice score over 0.90 in most cases, while cerebral segmentations showed lower scores, indicating variability in accuracy among different organs.
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Article Synopsis
  • This study explored the effectiveness of ensemble learning models for detecting breast cancer characteristics using [F]FDG-PET/CT images, with and without pre-processing protocols.
  • A cohort of 170 patients provided data on 173 tumors, and specialized techniques were applied to enhance the extraction of relevant features and address data quality issues.
  • Results indicated strong performance in detecting breast cancer and identifying aggressive triple negative tumors, though models for individual receptor status and specific subtypes showed lower effectiveness.
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Using bone-avid radiotracers, cardiac transthyretin (TTR) amyloidosis can be diagnosed by scintigraphy, thus obviating endomyocardial biopsy. Radiotracer accumulation, however, may also be due to other causes. A 68-year-old male with acute myocardial infarction underwent recanalization of the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD).

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Background: The objective of this study was to characterize tumor activity and mineralization status in newly-detected multiple myeloma (MM) bone lesions using 2-F-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (F-FDG)-PET/CT and F-sodium fluoride (F-NaF)-PET/CT before and after antitumor treatment.

Materials And Methods: In this retrospective study, seven patients with histologically-verified MM were included (four women, three men; median age=57 years, standard deviation=11.23 years).

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Background: Traditionally, isotope nephrography is considered as the method of choice to assess kidney function parameters in nuclear medicine. We propose a novel approach to determine the split function (SF), mean transit time (MTT), and outflow efficiency (OE) with 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-D-glucose (FDG) dynamic positron emission tomography (PET).

Materials And Methods: Healthy adult subjects underwent dynamic simultaneous FDG-PET and magnetic resonance imaging (PET/MRI).

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Purpose: In PIK3CA mutant breast cancer, downstream hyperactivation of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway may be associated with increased glycolysis of cancer cells. The purpose of this study was to investigate the functional association of PIK3CA mutational status and tumor glycolysis in invasive ER+/HER2- early breast cancer.

Procedures: This institutional review board-approved retrospective study included a dataset of 67 ER+/HER2- early breast cancer patients.

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Background: A method was developed to assess the kidney parameters glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and effective renal plasma flow (ERPF) from 2-deoxy-2-[F]fluoro-D-glucose (FDG) concentration behavior in kidneys, measured with positron emission tomography (PET) scans. Twenty-four healthy adult subjects prospectively underwent dynamic simultaneous PET/magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examination. Time activity curves (TACs) were obtained from the dynamic PET series, with the guidance of MR information.

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Aim: We evaluated the clinical usefulness of 6-[F]fluoro-3,4-dihydroxy-L-phenylalanine(F-FDOPA)-positron-emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) in insulinoma detection with contrast enhancement, early acquisition time, and no carbidopa premedication.

Patients And Methods: Twenty-six patients diagnosed with hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia underwent an F-FDOPA PET/CT examination. Patients without carbidopa premedication and contrast-enhanced CT were included.

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Aim: To evaluate (18)F-fluorodihydroxyphenylalanine-positron emission tomography/ contrast-enhanced computed tomography ((18)F-DOPA PET/CT) for the detection of paragangliomas (PARA) without any patient selection, such as genetic predisposition for the development of these tumors, history of metastatic PARA or hormonal status.

Patients And Methods: In this retrospective study, 28 consecutive patients (15 women, 13 men; mean age=46.4 years; age range=19-73 years), who were referred to our PET/CT center for the detection of clinically suspected PARA, were included.

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