Neurovascular, Muscle, and Skin Changes on [18F]FDG PET/MRI in Complex Regional Pain Syndrome of the Foot: A Prospective Clinical Study.

Objective: The goal of this study is to demonstrate the feasibility of simultaneous [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for noninvasive visualization of muscular, neurovascular, and skin changes secondary to complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS).

Subjects: Seven adult patients with CRPS of the foot and seven healthy adult controls participated in our [18F]FDG PET/MRI study.

Methods: All participants received whole-body PET/MRI scans 1 hour after the injection of 370MBq [18F]FDG.

Abnormal [18F]FDG PET/MRI findings in paraspinal structures of patients with suspected cerebrospinal fluid leak.

A combination of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), and radionuclide cisternography are typically used to locate a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leak. However, the site of leakage cannot be determined, making treatment more difficult. Therefore, more sensitive imaging tools are needed.

PET Imaging of HER2-Positive Tumors with Cu-64-Labeled Affibody Molecules.

Purpose: Previous studies has demonstrated the utility of human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2 (HER2) as an attractive target for cancer molecular imaging and therapy. An affibody protein with strong binding affinity for HER2, Z, has been reported. Various methods of chelator conjugation for radiolabeling HER2 affibody molecules have been described in the literature including N-terminal conjugation, C-terminal conjugation, and other methods.

Neuroimaging Radiological Interpretation System for Acute Traumatic Brain Injury.

The purpose of the study was to develop an outcome-based NeuroImaging Radiological Interpretation System (NIRIS) for patients with acute traumatic brain injury (TBI) that would standardize the interpretation of noncontrast head computer tomography (CT) scans and consolidate imaging findings into ordinal severity categories that would inform specific patient management actions and that could be used as a clinical decision support tool. We retrospectively identified all patients transported to our emergency department by ambulance or helicopter for whom a trauma alert was triggered per established criteria and who underwent a noncontrast head CT because of suspicion of TBI, between November 2015 and April 2016. Two neuroradiologists reviewed the noncontrast head CTs and assessed the TBI imaging common data elements (CDEs), as defined by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Sonographic Differentiation of Complicated From Uncomplicated Appendicitis: Implications for Antibiotics-First Therapy.

Objectives: To evaluate sonographic findings as indicators of complicated versus uncomplicated appendicitis in the setting of known appendicitis, a necessary distinction in deciding whether to proceed with antibiotic therapy or with appendectomy.

Methods: With Institutional Review Board approval and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act compliance, appendiceal sonograms of 119 patients with histopathologically proven appendicitis were retrospectively blindly reviewed to determine the presence or absence of the normally echogenic submucosal layer, the presence of mural hyperemia, periappendiceal fluid, appendicoliths, and hyperechoic periappendiceal fat and to determine the maximum outside diameter. Results were compared with the presence of complicated versus uncomplicated appendicitis on histopathologic examination and assessed by both univariate and mulitvariate logistic regression; confidence intervals (CIs) of proportions were assessed by the exact binomial test.

Color Doppler Imaging of the Appendix: Criteria to Improve Specificity for Appendicitis in the Borderline-Size Appendix.

Objectives: To test the hypothesis that continuous intramural vascular signal measuring at least 3 mm on color Doppler imaging is highly specific for appendicitis in patients with diagnostically borderline-size appendices.

Methods: Two blinded observers independently reviewed color Doppler images of the appendix in 94 consecutive patients who had undergone sonography for suspected appendicitis and whose appendices were of diagnostically borderline size (6-8 mm maximum outer diameter). Intramural vascular flow on color Doppler images was classified as absent, type 1 (only punctate and dispersed signal), or type 2 (continuous linear or curvilinear signal measuring at least 3.

Lymphoid Hyperplasia of the Appendix: A Potential Pitfall in the Sonographic Diagnosis of Appendicitis.

Objective: The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that thickening of the lamina propria, a finding produced by lymphoid hyperplasia, is significantly associated with false-positive sonographic diagnoses of appendicitis in 6- to 8-mm noncompressible appendixes.

Materials And Methods: Sonograms of 119 consecutive patients with suspected appendicitis and 6- to 8-mm noncompressible appendixes were retrospectively blindly evaluated for thickening of the lamina propria (short axis thickness ≥ 1 mm). The reference standard for appendicitis was pathologic analysis of resected specimens.

A novel Affibody bioconjugate for dual-modality imaging of ovarian cancer.

An Affibody based dual imaging probe (PET and optical imaging) has been successfully developed. Dendrimer PAMAM G0 was used as a platform to assemble an NIRF dye, a metal chelator, and Affibody for dual modality imaging of ovarian cancer. Excellent tumor imaging quality was achieved in both modalities in the living tumor mice models.

Tyrosinase as a multifunctional reporter gene for Photoacoustic/MRI/PET triple modality molecular imaging.

Development of reporter genes for multimodality molecular imaging is highly important. In contrast to the conventional strategies which have focused on fusing several reporter genes together to serve as multimodal reporters, human tyrosinase (TYR)--the key enzyme in melanin production--was evaluated in this study as a stand-alone reporter gene for in vitro and in vivo photoacoustic imaging (PAI), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET). Human breast cancer cells MCF-7 transfected with a plasmid that encodes TYR (named as MCF-7-TYR) and non-transfected MCF-7 cells were used as positive and negative controls, respectively.

Cerenkov Luminescence Imaging (CLI) for cancer therapy monitoring.

In molecular imaging, positron emission tomography (PET) and optical imaging (OI) are two of the most important and thus most widely used modalities. PET is characterized by its excellent sensitivity and quantification ability while OI is notable for non-radiation, relative low cost, short scanning time, high throughput, and wide availability to basic researchers. However, both modalities have their shortcomings as well.

A Four-Arm Star-Shaped Poly(ethylene glycol) (StarPEG) Platform for Bombesin Peptide Delivery to Gastrin-Releasing Peptide Receptors in Prostate Cancer.

We present the design, synthesis, and characterization of a novel cancer biomarker delivery platform, the star-shaped four-arm poly(ethylene glycol) (StarPEG). Using the multidisplay platform we were able to synthesize a bombesin (BBN) positron emission tomography (PET) probe featuring four copies of 8-Aoc-BBN peptides (where 8-Aoc is 8-aminooctanic acid), which we named StarPEG-BBN. Cell binding studies showed that StarPEG-BBN had a good binding affinity to PC3 cells (IC = 65.

Evaluation of four affibody-based near-infrared fluorescent probes for optical imaging of epidermal growth factor receptor positive tumors.

Unlabelled: The epidermal growth factor receptor 1 (EGFR) has become an attractive target for cancer molecular imaging and therapy. An Affibody protein with strong binding affinity for EGFR, ZEGFR:1907, has been reported. We are interested in translating Affibody molecules to potential clinical optical imaging of EGFR positive cancers.

Proof-of-concept study of monitoring cancer drug therapy with cerenkov luminescence imaging.

Unlabelled: Cerenkov luminescence imaging (CLI) has emerged as a less expensive, easier-to-use, and higher-throughput alternative to other nuclear imaging modalities such as PET. It is expected that CLI will find many applications in biomedical research such as cancer detection, probe development, drug screening, and therapy monitoring. In this study, we explored the possibility of using CLI to monitor drug efficacy by comparisons against PET.

Harnessing the power of radionuclides for optical imaging: Cerenkov luminescence imaging.

Over the past several years, nuclear imaging modalities such as PET and SPECT have received much attention because they have been instrumental not only in preclinical cancer research but also in nuclear medicine. Yet nuclear imaging is limited by high instrumentation cost and subsequently low availability to basic researchers. Cerenkov radiation, a relativistic physical phenomenon that was discovered 70 years ago, has recently become an intriguing subject of study in molecular imaging because of its potential in augmenting nuclear imaging, particularly in preclinical small-animal studies.

One-step radiosynthesis of ¹⁸F-AlF-NOTA-RGD₂ for tumor angiogenesis PET imaging.

Purpose: One of the major obstacles of the clinical translation of (18)F-labeled arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) peptides has been the laborious multistep radiosynthesis. In order to facilitate the application of RGD-based positron emission tomography (PET) probes in the clinical setting we investigated in this study the feasibility of using the chelation reaction between Al(18)F and a macrocyclic chelator-conjugated dimeric RGD peptide as a simple one-step (18)F labeling strategy for development of a PET probe for tumor angiogenesis imaging.

Methods: Dimeric cyclic peptide E[c(RGDyK)](2) (RGD(2)) was first conjugated with a macrocyclic chelator, 1,4,7-triazacyclononane-1,4,7-triacetic acid (NOTA), and the resulting bioconjugate NOTA-RGD(2) was then radiofluorinated via Al(18)F intermediate to synthesize (18)F-AlF-NOTA-RGD(2).