Publications by authors named "Thomas Pascual"
Article Synopsis
- The study evaluates the recovery of cardiac diagnostic procedures in Italy one year after the COVID-19 outbreak, focusing on procedure volumes, practices, and staff well-being.
- A global survey revealed a 72% drop in cardiac diagnostic procedures in April 2020 compared to March 2019, with only a slight recovery (3% increase) by April 2021, though some specific tests showed increased volumes.
- Many healthcare centers adopted measures like physical distancing and COVID-19 screening, but 25% of physicians reported high psychological stress levels, highlighting ongoing challenges within the healthcare system.
Article Synopsis
- - The COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted cardiovascular testing in Latin America (LATAM), with a study finding a 21% decrease in procedure volumes from pre-pandemic levels in April 2021, contrasting with zero change in the rest of the world.
- - Central America and Mexico experienced the largest reductions in procedures (47%), while healthcare centers in LATAM reported more staff layoffs and salary cuts than those in other regions.
- - The study highlighted the lasting effects of the pandemic on cardiovascular care and emphasized the need for mental health support for healthcare workers in LATAM, as nearly 50% reported excessive psychological stress.
Guiding principles on the education and practice of theranostics.
Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging
July 2024
Article Synopsis
- * A Consultancy Meeting at the IAEA in May 2023 brought together global experts to discuss the creation of a comprehensive training curriculum for theranostics.
- * A harmonized training program was established to promote safe and high-quality theranostics practices worldwide, ensuring competency among both new and existing specialists.
Article Synopsis
- The study aimed to evaluate the recovery of cardiac diagnostic procedure volumes in Oceania during the COVID-19 pandemic by comparing data from March 2019, April 2020, and April 2021 across various health facilities.
- Results showed that 11,902 procedures were performed in April 2021, slightly below pre-pandemic levels, while the rest of the world had similar recovery rates, indicating a small decline in both regions.
- Although there were no significant differences in overall recovery rates, anatomical coronary testing in Oceania demonstrated poorer recovery compared to the rest of the world, raising concerns about specific diagnostic procedures.
Pediatric Differentiated Thyroid Cancer (pedDTC) is a rare pediatric malignancy with an increasing incidence over time. To date, there is a paucity of literature specifically addressing pedDTC within the context of Middle Eastern ethnicity. This retrospective study aimed to assess the risk-stratifying factors for overall survival (OS) and event-free survival (EFS) in pediatric DTC patients from Iraq and Jordan.
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- The COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted cardiovascular care, particularly affecting noninvasive testing for coronary artery disease (CAD), with unclear trends across different income levels.
- A global survey by the International Atomic Energy Agency included data from 669 centers in 107 countries, revealing that traditional tests decreased by 14%, while advanced tests increased by 15% from 2019 to 2021.
- The rise in advanced testing mainly occurred in high- and upper middle-income countries, highlighting a growing disparity in CAD diagnostic practices between wealthier and lower-income nations.
Article Synopsis
- The study aimed to assess how diagnostic cardiovascular procedure volumes rebounded in the U.S. and abroad during the year after COVID-19 hit, relying on data from 669 facilities worldwide.
- In the early pandemic (April 2020), procedure volumes dropped significantly but showed a better recovery in U.S. facilities by April 2021 compared to non-U.S. facilities, although high-income non-U.S. countries showed similar recovery rates as the U.S.
- Regional variations within the U.S. were noted, with the Midwest having the highest recovery rate, but no specific factors were found to predict recovery levels from the initial drop in procedure volumes.
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates how the COVID-19 pandemic affected cardiac diagnostic services globally, examining changes in testing practices and provider stress levels.
- Researchers conducted a survey from 669 centers across 107 countries and found a 64% reduction in cardiac procedure volumes during the pandemic, with recovery varying significantly between high-income and lower-income countries.
- Results indicated a shift from traditional stress testing to advanced imaging techniques, alongside widespread psychological stress among healthcare providers, which hindered the recovery of cardiac testing services, especially in lower-income regions.
F-FDG PET/CT quantification of whole-body tumor burden in lymphoma is not routinely performed because of the lack of fast methods. Although the semiautomatic method is fast, it is not fast enough to quantify tumor burden in daily clinical practice. Our purpose was to evaluate the performance of convolutional neural network (CNN) software in localizing neoplastic lesions in whole-body F-FDG PET/CT images of pediatric lymphoma patients.
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- The COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted cardiac diagnostic procedures in Latin America, with volumes dropping by 36% in March 2020 and 82% by April 2020 compared to the previous year.
- Key tests like echocardiograms and exercise treadmill tests saw the most dramatic declines, with reductions of up to 91%.
- The study found that changes in social distancing were more closely linked to these volume reductions than the actual incidence of COVID-19 cases, highlighting the need for better management of healthcare access during pandemics.
Article Synopsis
- The COVID-19 pandemic led to a significant decline in cardiovascular diagnostic procedures in Asia, with procedure volumes dropping by 47% from March 2019 to March 2020, and even more in low-income countries where reductions reached 81%.
- A worldwide survey by the International Atomic Energy Agency highlighted that recovery began in some regions like Eastern Asia, especially China, between March and April 2020.
- Changes in practices included the implementation of physical distancing and restricting visitors; however, COVID testing was infrequently conducted, despite being more common in one-third of Eastern Asian facilities.
Background: In early 2020, COVID-19 massively hit Italy, earlier and harder than any other European country. This caused a series of strict containment measures, aimed at blocking the spread of the pandemic. Healthcare delivery was also affected when resources were diverted towards care of COVID-19 patients, including intensive care wards.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: We aimed to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cardiac diagnostic testing and practice and to assess its impact in different regions in Europe.
Methods: The online survey organised by the International Atomic Energy Agency Division of Human Health collected information on changes in cardiac imaging procedural volumes between March 2019 and March/April 2020. Data were collected from 909 centres in 108 countries.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first detected in China in late 2019 and rapidly spread to nearby Asian countries in early 2020. Outbreaks occurred differently in each country and affected nuclear medicine (NM) practice significantly even before the COVID-19 pandemic. The Asian NM community has worked together from the beginning of the pandemic.
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- This study analyzed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cardiovascular procedure volumes in the U.S. compared to non-U.S. institutions, finding significant declines across both areas.
- In April 2020, U.S. facilities experienced a 68% reduction in procedures, similar to the 63% decline in non-U.S. locations, but U.S. invasive coronary angiography procedures dropped more steeply (69% vs. 53%).
- The study also noted more U.S. facilities adopted telehealth and patient screening measures, with volume reductions varying by region—most significantly in the Northeast and Midwest.
Article Synopsis
- The INCAPS COVID Oceania study investigated how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the volume of cardiac procedures in the Oceania region by comparing data from March 2019 to April 2020.
- A significant reduction of 52.2% in cardiac diagnostic procedures was noted in Oceania, which was less severe than the global reduction of 75.9%.
- The decrease varied by procedure type, with transthoracic echocardiography down 51.6% and transoesophageal echocardiography decreased by 74%; overall, recommendations to limit COVID-19 spread likely influenced these drops.
Objectives: This study sought to describe worldwide variations in the use of myocardial perfusion imaging hardware, software, and imaging protocols and their impact on radiation effective dose (ED).
Background: Concerns about long-term effects of ionizing radiation have prompted efforts to identify strategies for dose optimization in myocardial perfusion scintigraphy. Studies have increasingly shown opportunities for dose reduction using newer technologies and optimized protocols.
Article Synopsis
- The COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases, which are the leading cause of death worldwide, leading to a drastic reduction in procedural volumes globally.* -
- A global survey revealed that cardiovascular diagnostic procedures decreased by around 42% in March 2020 and 64% by April 2020 compared to the same months in the previous year, with non-invasive tests like echocardiography and stress tests experiencing even steeper declines.* -
- The impact was more pronounced in countries with lower GDP, where facilities experienced 22% more reduction in procedures and had less access to personal protective equipment and telehealth options, highlighting the unequal effects of the pandemic on healthcare services.*
Objectives: This study sought to establish worldwide and regional diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) and achievable administered activities (AAAs) for single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI).
Background: Reference levels serve as radiation dose benchmarks to compare individual laboratories against aggregated data, helping to identify sites in greatest need of dose reduction interventions. DRLs for SPECT MPI have previously been derived from national or regional registries.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has placed significant challenges on health-care systems worldwide, whether in the preparation, response, or recovery phase of the pandemic. This has been primarily managed by dramatically reducing in- and outpatient services for other diseases and implementing infection prevention and control measures. The impact of the pandemic on nuclear medicine departments and their services has not yet been established.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Initial studies of tuberculosis (TB) in macaques and humans using F-FDG positron emission tomography (PET) imaging as a research tool suggest its usefulness in localising disease sites and as a clinical biomarker. Sequential serial scans in patients with extrapulmonary TB (EPTB) could inform on the value of PET-CT for monitoring response to treatment and defining cure.
Patients And Methods: HIV-negative adults with EPTB from eight sites across six countries had three F-FDG PET/CT scans: (i) within 2 weeks of enrolment, (ii) at 2 months into TB treatment and (iii) at end of ATT treatment.
Background: A large proportion of the huge global burden of extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) cases are treated empirically without accurate definition of disease sites and extent of multi-organ disease involvement. Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging using 2-deoxy-2-(fluorine-18) fluoro-d-glucose (F-FDG) in tuberculosis could be a useful imaging technique for localising disease sites and extent of disease.
Methods: We conducted a study of HIV-negative adult patients with a new clinical diagnosis of EPTB across eight centres located in six countries: India, Pakistan, Thailand, South Africa, Serbia and Bangladesh, to assess the extent of disease and common sites involved at first presentation.
Guidelines recommend true whole-body F-FDG PET/CT scans from vertex to toes in pediatric lymphoma patients, although this suggestion has not been validated in large clinical trials. The objective of the study was to evaluate the incidence and clinical impact of lesions outside the "eyes to thighs" regular field of view (R-FOV) in F-FDG PET/CT staging (sPET) and interim (iPET) scans in pediatric lymphoma patients. True whole-body sPET and iPET scans were prospectively obtained in pediatric lymphoma patients (11 worldwide centers).
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