Publications by authors named "Ioannis Iakovou"

The treatment of choice for aortic valve stenosis in patients with low and intermediate risk is still debated. In this study, we compared the outcomes of low-to-intermediate surgical risk patients who underwent surgical versus transcatheter aortic valve replacement for severe aortic valve stenosis (AS). Between 2015 and 2019, 326 consecutive patients with severe AS underwent transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), while 341 patients underwent surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR).

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Introduction: Quality of life measures from the patient's subjective experience are important, since it capture how the treatment affects their daily life, functional abilities, and emotional well-being. This study aimed to measure patients' QoL prior and after Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) procedure.

Methods: This prospective study was conducted from November 2022 to December 2024 in a sample of 302 TAVI patients from three public Hospitals in Greece.

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This prospective study was conducted in four public tertiary hospitals in Greece. Consecutive cardiac patients (AMI or TAVI) (n=912) were registered and followed up at the point of discharge six months and 12 months after discharge. In case of AMI patients [N=610, mean age=63 (SD=11.

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Many diagnostic methods exist for identifying thyroid malignancy, but most of them resemble an odyssey, as the journey from palpating a nodule to receiving a definitive diagnose is often long and costly. The aim of the present study is to investigate the role of Sestamibi scintigraphy in the characterization of cytological indeterminate thyroid nodules. A focused literature review was conducted, emphasizing the comparison between Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy (FNAB), the main diagnostic method for thyroid cancer, and Sestamibi.

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Purpose: Ultrasonography (US) is the most accurate and cost-effective imaging method for identifying thyroid nodules. The difficulty in determining which nodules to sample for fine-needle aspiration (FNA) cytology has prompted the introduction of the Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data Systems (TIRADS), which assesses the malignancy risk associated with thyroid nodules. Real-time elastography (RTE), coupled with strain ratio (SR) measurements, offers a means to evaluate the nodule stiffness and potentially discern their likelihood of being malignant.

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Purpose: Hypoparathyroidism (HypoPT) is one of the most common complications of surgical treatment for thyroid cancer and afflicated patients often report symptoms or impairments in quality of life (QoL). We aimed to investigate differences in various QoL domains between thyroid cancer survivors with and without permanent hypoparathyroidism.

Methods: Thyroid cancer survivors with a minimum of 1.

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Background/objectives: Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a highly aggressive tumor, as it is characterized by a high probability of local recurrence and distant metastases, even after surgical treatment. Early detection of disease recurrence is critical for improving long-term treatment outcomes and overall patient survival. By comparing different radiopharmaceuticals, this analysis aimed to strengthen existing guidelines and help bridge the gap between the recommendations of the ESMO and the ATA, highlighting the importance of PET/CT scanning in the postoperative follow-up of patients with MTC.

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Positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) is a hybrid medical imaging technique that combines PET and CT to provide detailed images of the body's anatomical structures and metabolic activity. It is frequently used for oncology and other medical diagnoses. This overview aims to examine how artificial intelligence (AI) has been used in PET/CT, based on recent state-of-art.

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Objective: Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) has emerged as a pivotal therapeutic modality for aortic stenosis, predominantly in the elderly population. Despite its clinical success, the incidence and implications of vascular complications during TAVI remain a subject of critical concern.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 140 patients who experienced vascular complications during TAVI procedures from a total cohort of 1343 cases.

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Health economic appraisals often rely on the assessment of health utilities using preference-based measures (PBM). The cancer-specific PBM, European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Utility - Core 10 Dimensions (EORTC QLU-C10D), was developed recently, and now needs to be validated in various clinical populations. In a multicenter, multinational prospective cohort study, we longitudinally collected EORTC QLQ-C30 and EQ-5D-5L data from patients with thyroid cancer.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The study employed SPECT imaging to analyze blood flow patterns in 23 patients diagnosed with behavioral variant Frontotemporal Dementia (bvFTD), focusing on areas of the brain linked to behavioral changes and dementia severity.
  • - Results indicated significant hypoperfusion (reduced blood flow) in the frontal, limbic, and temporal lobes, with the limbic lobes being particularly affected in all participants.
  • - The findings revealed correlations between reduced perfusion in these brain areas and the severity of behavioral disturbances, suggesting that these perfusion patterns could aid in the early diagnosis and treatment of bvFTD.
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Article Synopsis
  • The study evaluates the effectiveness of EU-TIRADS and ACR-TIRADS in identifying benign vs. malignant thyroid nodules that are 20 mm or larger, as current risk assessments may not be very accurate for TIRADS 3 nodules.
  • A total of 308 nodules from 267 patients were analyzed, revealing 22 cancers and 286 benign cases, with modified TIRADS thresholds showing potential to significantly reduce unnecessary fine needle aspirations (FNAs).
  • While both systems performed similarly when using a 25 mm threshold, increasing the cutoff could lessen unnecessary procedures but poses a risk of missing some malignancies, affecting patient care.
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Objective: Thyroid cancer (TC) is the most common endocrine malignancy with constantly growing incidence. Radioiodine ablation is a safe and effective method for managing TC. Recently various Guidelines (GL) have been published on whom should be ablated, when and under which circumstances.

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Haemolytic anaemia represents a risk factor for the development of pulmonary hypertension (PH), currently classified as World Health Organization group 5 PH, and data regarding appropriate therapeutic strategy are limited. A total of 28 patients, 85.7% with thalassaemia and 14.

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(1) Background: After thyroid malignancy is ruled out, treatment options for multinodular goiter patients include surgery, levothyroxine suppressive therapy, and 131-I therapy. Surgery effectively reduces goiter size but carries risks of surgical and anesthetic complications. 131-I therapy is the only nonsurgical alternative, but its effectiveness diminishes with goiter size and depends on iodine sufficiency.

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Aims: While hormonal assays are commonly used for thyroid function assessment, Doppler sonography provides valuable information on vascularization and blood flow. This study aimed to examine the potential associations between Doppler parameters and clinical characteristics of hypothyroid patients, such as the autoimmune nature of the disease and adequacy of LT4 replacement.

Methods: A total of 338 patients with hypothyroidism, primarily caused by autoimmune thyroiditis (AT), were enrolled in this study.

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Mitral regurgitation is one of the most prevalent valvulopathies with a disease burden that incurs significant healthcare costs globally. Surgical repair of the posterior mitral valve leaflet is a standard treatment, but approaches for repairing the anterior mitral valve leaflet are not widely established. Since anterior leaflet involvement is less common and more difficult to repair, fewer studies have investigated its natural history and treatment options.

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I-123 is preferential over I-131 for diagnostic SPECT imaging after a thyroidectomy to determine the presence and size of residual thyroid tissue for radioiodine ablation. Scattering degrades the quality of I-123 SPECT images, primarily due to the penetration of high-energy photons into the main photopeak. The objective of this study was to quantitatively and qualitatively investigate the impact of two widely used window-based scatter correction techniques, the dual energy window (DEW) and triple energy window (TEW) techniques, in I-123 postsurgical SPECT/CT thyroid imaging using an anthropomorphic phantom with small sizes of remnants and anatomically correct surrounding structures.

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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the type of data capture on the time and help needed for collecting patient-reported outcomes as well as on the proportion of missing scores.

Methods: In a multinational prospective study, thyroid cancer patients from 17 countries completed a validated questionnaire measuring quality of life. Electronic data capture was compared to the paper-based approach using multivariate logistic regression.

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Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate various therapeutic approaches, identify potential predictive factors for the recurrence and development of hypothyroidism, and examine specific clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients with subacute thyroiditis (SAT) due to SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of 226 patients with confirmed SAT diagnosed from January 2020 to November 2022.

Results: The mean age was 48.

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The aim of this study was to validate the new European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Thyroid Cancer Module (EORTC QLQ-THY34). We enrolled 437 thyroid cancer patients from 17 countries. One group ( = 303), undergoing treatment or best supportive care, completed the questionnaires at three time points (before therapy [t1], 6 weeks later [t2], and 6 months after t2 [t3]).

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This document provides the new EANM guideline on radioiodine therapy of benign thyroid disease. Its aim is to guide nuclear medicine physicians, endocrinologists, and practitioners in the selection of patients for radioiodine therapy. Its recommendations on patients' preparation, empiric and dosimetric therapeutic approaches, applied radioiodine activity, radiation protection requirements, and patients follow-up after administration of radioiodine therapy are extensively discussed.

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Objective: Differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) is one of the fastest growing cancers worldwide. Despite the generally good prognosis of thyroid carcinoma, about 5% of patients will develop metastatic disease, exhibiting a more aggressive behavior. Radioiodine whole-body scintigraphy (WBS) has been used in the detection of DTC.

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