Preoperative F-FDG PET/CT in Patients with Presumed Localized Colon Cancer: A Prospective Study with Long-Term Follow-Up.

We analyzed whether preoperative F-FDG PET/CT adds to conventional primary staging in patients with presumed non-metastatic colonic cancer (CC). The prognostic role of F-FDG uptake in the primary tumor was evaluated after a mean follow-up of 15 years. Patients with a new diagnosis of presumed localized CC were prospectively enrolled and underwent presurgical F-FDG PET/CT.

Data-driven respiratory gating for ventilation/perfusion lung scan.

Background: Ventilation/perfusion lung scan is subject to blur due to respiratory motion whether with planar acquisition or single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). We propose a data-driven gating method for extracting different respiratory phases from lung scan list-mode or dynamic data.

Methods: The algorithm derives a surrogate respiratory signal from an automatically detected diaphragmatic region of interest.

Vertebra segmentation based on two-step refinement.

Knowledge of vertebra location, shape, and orientation is crucial in many medical applications such as orthopedics or interventional procedures. Computed tomography (CT) offers a high contrast between bone and soft tissues, but automatic vertebra segmentation remains difficult. Hence, the wide range of shapes, aging, and degenerative joint disease alterations as well as the variety of pathological cases encountered in an aging population make automatic segmentation sometimes challenging.

18F-fluorodihydroxyphenylalanine PET/CT in patients with neuroendocrine tumors of unknown origin: relation to tumor origin and differentiation.

Unlabelled: This work was performed to evaluate the performance of (18)F-fluorodihydroxyphenylalanine ((18)F-FDOPA) PET/CT in detecting primary neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) occult on morphologic and functional imaging, in relation to tumor origin and differentiation.

Methods: A retrospective study of NET patients who were investigated with (18)F-FDOPA PET/CT imaging in 2 academic endocrine tumor centers was conducted. Only patients with negative conventional and somatostatin receptor scintigraphy (SRS) results were studied.

18F-fluorocholine uptake in a case of adrenal incidentaloma: possible diagnostic pitfall or potential tool for adrenocortical tumors characterization?

The understanding of radiotracer's physiological biodistribution as well as the potential source of false-positive results is crucial for an accurate diagnostic interpretation of (18)F-fluorocholine PET/CT examination in patients with prostate cancer. We illustrate the results of whole-body (18)F-fluorocholine PET/CT in a 79-year-old man with biochemical suspicion of prostate adenocarcinoma relapse. PET/CT study showed a focally increased (18)F-fluorocholine uptake, characterizing an incidentally found adrenocortical adenoma.

The rim sign: FDG-PET/CT pattern of pulmonary infarction.

Objective: We aimed to describe a pattern of rim uptake observed in lung infarction on FDG-PET/CT, called the "rim sign." It was defined as a continuous slight FDG uptake along the border of a subpleural consolidation without uptake within the consolidation.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the FDG-PET/CT studies of 400 patients referred for thoracic oncological workup from November 2010 to July 2011.

Terminal ileum neuroendocrine incidentaloma in a patient with sporadic medullary thyroid carcinoma: findings from 18F-FDOPA PET/CT investigation.

An incidentaloma is a mass lesion incidentally found, of uncertain significance, and clinically inert. Although incidentaloma is commonly referred to designate an adrenal lesion, it can denote any incidental lesion of other organs. We describe the unexpected finding of an ileum neuroendocrine incidentaloma detected by 6-L-(18F)-fluorodihydroxyphenylalanine (FDOPA) PET/CT performed in an asymptomatic patient with history of sporadic medullary thyroid carcinoma and biochemical suspicion of recurrent disease.

Nuclear medicine imaging of gastro-entero-pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. The key role of cellular differentiation and tumor grade: from theory to clinical practice.

Nuclear medicine imaging is a powerful diagnostic tool for the management of patients with gastro-entero-pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, mainly developed considering some cellular characteristics that are specific to the neuroendocrine phenotype. Hence, overexpression of specific trans membrane receptors as well as the cellular ability to take up, accumulate, and decarboxylate amine precursors have been considered for diagnostic radiotracer development. Moreover, the glycolytic metabolism, which is not a specific energetic pathway of neuroendocrine tumors, has been proposed for radionuclide imaging of neuroendocrine tumors.

Comparison of FDG-PET/CT and MR with diffusion-weighted imaging for assessing peritoneal carcinomatosis from gastrointestinal malignancy.

Objectives: To assess the accuracy of FDG-PET/CT and MR with diffusion-weighted imaging (MR-DWI) for diagnosing peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) from gastrointestinal malignancies.

Methods: Thirty consecutive patients referred for staging of gastrointestinal malignancy underwent FDG-PET/CT and MR-DWI in this retrospective study. Extent of PC was characterised by dividing the peritoneal cavity into three sites in each patient: right and left supramesocolic areas and inframesocolic level (total 90 sites).

FDG-PET/CT findings of atypical (bizarre/symplastic) uterine leiomyoma in a patient with abdominal leiomyosarcoma.

Atypical (bizarre) leiomyoma is a benign uterine smooth-muscle tumor characterized by a) a significant number of cells with dense eosinophilic cytoplasm and enlarged, bizarre single/multiple hyperchromatic or multiple nuclei without tumor necrosis and b) poor mitotic activity. We report the case of an atypical (bizarre) leiomyoma revealed by focal fluoro-deoxyglucose (FDG) uptake during a PET-CT in a patient with relapsing abdominal and retroperitoneal leiomyosarcoma.