Peri- and Postsurgical Evaluations of Renal Transplant
Renal transplantation is the best treatment of choice for patient with chronic renal insufficiency because it provides better quality of life and longer survival. Survival rates for grafts and patients have improved over the recent decades because of significant evolution of surgical techniques and immunosuppressive treatment. However, renal transplantation is still associated with several complications, which may result in poor outcome. Cause of allograft dysfunction, which occurs in the early or late post-transplantation period, should be recognized immediately, so that it can be managed correctly. (Source: Seminars in Nuclear Medicine)
Source: Seminars in Nuclear Medicine - July 25, 2017 Category: Nuclear Medicine Authors: Belkis Erbas Source Type: research
Comprehensive Auditing in Nuclear Medicine Through the International Atomic Energy Agency Quality Management Audits in Nuclear Medicine (QUANUM) Program. Part 1: the QUANUM Program and Methodology
An effective management system that integrates quality management is essential for a modern nuclear medicine practice. The Nuclear Medicine and Diagnostic Imaging Section of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has the mission of supporting nuclear medicine practice in low- and middle-income countries and of helping them introduce it in their health-care system, when not yet present. The experience gathered over several years has shown diversified levels of development and varying degrees of quality of practice, among others because of limited professional networking and limited or no opportunities for exchange of...
Source: Seminars in Nuclear Medicine - July 25, 2017 Category: Nuclear Medicine Authors: Maurizio Dondi, Leonel Torres, Mario Marengo, Teresa Massardo, Eyal Mishani, Annare Van Zyl Ellmann, Kishor Solanki, Angelika Bischof Delaloye, Enrique Estrada Lobato, Rodolfo Nunez Miller, Diana Paez, Thomas Pascual Source Type: research
FDG-PET/CT in the Postoperative Period: Utility, Expected Findings, Complications, and Pitfalls
FDG-PET/CT as a modality is increasingly used for detection of recurrence and for restaging in patients with clinical suspicion of malignancy, as well as in patients with elevated tumor markers. However, there are many pitfalls in the interpretation of these scans when the studies are performed after some treatment. Some of these are attributed to normal physiological distribution and are compounded when there are inflammatory changes occurring after surgery. The body's inherent response to the surgical insult results in this inflammation. (Source: Seminars in Nuclear Medicine)
Source: Seminars in Nuclear Medicine - July 24, 2017 Category: Nuclear Medicine Authors: Gunjan Garg, Mohammed Taoudi Benchekroun, Tony Abraham Source Type: research
Small Prosthetic Groups in 18F-Radiochemistry: Useful Auxiliaries for the Design of 18F-PET Tracers
Prosthetic group (PG) applications in 18F-radiochemistry play a pivotal role among current 18F-labeling techniques for the development and availability of 18F-labeled imaging probes for PET (Wahl, 2002) (1). The introduction and popularization of PGs in the mid-80s by pioneers in 18F-radiochemistry has profoundly changed the landscape of available tracers for PET and has led to a multitude of new imaging agents based on simple and efficiently synthesized PGs. Because of the chemical nature of anionic 18F − (apart from electrophilic low specific activity 18F-fluorine), radiochemistry before the introduction of PGs was lim...
Source: Seminars in Nuclear Medicine - July 17, 2017 Category: Nuclear Medicine Authors: Ralf Schirrmacher, Bj örn Wängler, Justin Bailey, Vadim Bernard-Gauthier, Esther Schirrmacher, Carmen Wängler Source Type: research
Small-molecule PET Tracers for Imaging Proteinopathies
In this chapter, we provide a review of the challenges and advances in developing successful PET imaging agents for 3 major types of aggregated amyloid proteins: amyloid-beta (A β), tau, and alpha-synuclein (α-syn). These 3 amyloids are involved in the pathogenesis of a variety of neurodegenerative diseases, referred to as proteinopathies or proteopathies, that include Alzheimer disease, Lewy body dementias, multiple system atrophy, and frontotemporal dementias, among oth ers. In the Introduction section, we briefly discuss the history of amyloid in neurodegenerative diseases and describe why progress in developing effec...
Source: Seminars in Nuclear Medicine - July 13, 2017 Category: Nuclear Medicine Authors: Chester A. Mathis, Brian J. Lopresti, Milos D. Ikonomovic, William E. Klunk Source Type: research
Clinical Applications of Small-molecule PET Radiotracers: Current Progress and Future Outlook
Radiotracers, or radiopharmaceuticals, are bioactive molecules tagged with a radionuclide used for diagnostic imaging or radiotherapy and, when a positron-emitting radionuclide is chosen, the radiotracers are used for PET imaging. The development of novel PET radiotracers in many ways parallels the development of new pharmaceuticals, and small molecules dominate research and development pipelines in both disciplines. The 4 decades since the introduction of [18F]FDG have seen the development of many small molecule PET radiotracers. (Source: Seminars in Nuclear Medicine)
Source: Seminars in Nuclear Medicine - July 11, 2017 Category: Nuclear Medicine Authors: Amy L. V āvere, Peter J.H. Scott Source Type: research
Exploring Metabolism In Vivo Using Endogenous 11C Metabolic Tracers
Cancer and other diseases are increasingly understood in terms of their metabolic disturbances. This thinking has revolutionized the field of ex vivo metabolomics and motivated new approaches to detect metabolites in living systems, including proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS), hyperpolarized 13C MRS, and PET. For PET, imaging abnormal metabolism in vivo is hardly new. Positron-labeled small-molecule metabolites have been used for decades in humans, including 18F-FDG, which is used frequently to detect upregulated glycolysis in tumors. (Source: Seminars in Nuclear Medicine)
Source: Seminars in Nuclear Medicine - July 11, 2017 Category: Nuclear Medicine Authors: Kiel Neumann, Robert Flavell, David M. Wilson Source Type: research
Small Molecule Receptor Ligands for PET Studies of the Central Nervous System —Focus on G Protein Coupled Receptors
G protein-coupled receptors (GPRCs) are a class of proteins that are expressed in high abundance and are responsible for numerous signal transduction pathways in the central nervous system. Consequently, alterations in GPRC function have been associated with a wide variety of neurologic and neuropsychiatric disorders. The development of PET probes for imaging GPRCs has served as a major emphasis of PET radiotracer development and PET imaging studies over the past 30 years. In this review, a basic description of the biology of G proteins and GPRCs is provided. (Source: Seminars in Nuclear Medicine)
Source: Seminars in Nuclear Medicine - July 6, 2017 Category: Nuclear Medicine Authors: Robert H. Mach Source Type: research
Small-molecule Receptor Ligands of PET Studies of the Central Nervous System —Focus on G Protein-coupled Receptors
G protein-coupled receptors (GPRCs) are a class of proteins that are expressed in high abundance and are responsible for numerous signal transduction pathways in the central nervous system. Consequently, alterations in GPRC function have been associated with a wide variety of neurologic and neuropsychiatric disorders. The development of PET probes for imaging GPRCs has served as a major emphasis of PET radiotracer development and PET imaging studies over the past 30 years. In this review, a basic description of the biology of G proteins and GPRCs is provided. (Source: Seminars in Nuclear Medicine)
Source: Seminars in Nuclear Medicine - July 6, 2017 Category: Nuclear Medicine Authors: Robert H. Mach Source Type: research
Small Molecule PET Tracers for Transporter Imaging
As the field of PET has expanded and an ever-increasing number and variety of compounds have been radiolabeled as potential in vivo tracers of biochemistry, transporters have become important primary targets or facilitators of radiotracer uptake and distribution. A transporter can be the primary target through the development of a specific high-affinity radioligand: examples are the multiple high-affinity radioligands for the neuronal membrane neurotransmitter or vesicular transporters, used to image nerve terminals in the brain. (Source: Seminars in Nuclear Medicine)
Source: Seminars in Nuclear Medicine - July 5, 2017 Category: Nuclear Medicine Authors: Michael R. Kilbourn Source Type: research
Guest Editorial
At the 2016 Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) Annual Meeting, we organized a Categorical Seminar, sponsored by the SNMMI Radiopharmaceutical Sciences Council, on the topic of “Small-molecule PET Radiotracers,” and this subject also serves as the foundation for this issue of Seminars in Nuclear Medicine. The decision to focus the session (and this companion issue of Seminars) on small molecules is indicative of their continued importance in both drug discovery and rad iotracer development. (Source: Seminars in Nuclear Medicine)
Source: Seminars in Nuclear Medicine - June 29, 2017 Category: Nuclear Medicine Authors: Amy L. V āvere, Peter J.H. Scott Source Type: research
Clinical Applications of Radiolabeled Peptides for PET
Radiolabeled peptides are a valuable class of radiotracer that occupies the space between small molecules and large biologics, and are able to exploit the advantages of both classes of compound. To date, radiolabeled peptides have mainly been utilized in oncology, where the same peptide can often be exploited for diagnostic imaging and targeted radiotherapy by simply varying the radionuclide. In this review, we introduce the main strategies used for synthesis of radiolabeled peptides, and highlight the state of the art for clinical imaging (and therapy) in oncology using the main classes of radiolabeled peptides that have ...
Source: Seminars in Nuclear Medicine - June 13, 2017 Category: Nuclear Medicine Authors: Isaac M. Jackson, Peter J.H. Scott, Stephen Thompson Source Type: research
Letter from the Editors
Radionuclide bone imaging is a significant clinical procedure that has been performed since the inception of the modern era of clinical nuclear medicine a half century ago. Our very first issue of Seminars in Nuclear Medicine devoted to this subject was on January 1972 (vol. 2, no. 1).1 At that time, the most widely used agent was strontium-85. Because of the long 64-day physical half-life of strontium-85, we were restricted to a small 100 µCi dose for use only in malignant diseases. The subsequent introduction of the 99mTc-phosphate agents by Subramanian and McAfee2 not only improved diagnosis of malignant disorders b...
Source: Seminars in Nuclear Medicine - June 3, 2017 Category: Nuclear Medicine Authors: Leonard M. Freeman, M. Donald Blaufox Source Type: research
Guest Editorial on PET of Benign Musculoskeletal Conditions
The musculoskeletal system includes the bones of the skeleton, joints, muscles, tendons and ligaments, and bursae. These structures can be affected by many malignant and benign conditions. One of the roles of the imaging physician is to differentiate the former from the latter and to refer equivocal cases for further diagnostic tests (including additional imaging tests and biopsy) or follow-up if clinically indicated. PET with the radiotracer FDG plays an important clinical role in the evaluation of human diseases, particularly in oncology. (Source: Seminars in Nuclear Medicine)
Source: Seminars in Nuclear Medicine - May 2, 2017 Category: Nuclear Medicine Authors: Hugo J.A. Adams, Thomas C. Kwee Source Type: research
FDG-PET/CT in Skeletal Muscle: Pitfalls and Pathologies
FDG-PET/CT is an integral part of modern-day practice of medicine. By detecting increased cellular metabolism, FDG-PET/CT can help us detect infection, inflammatory disorders, or tumors, and also help us in prognostication of patients. However, one of the most important challenges is to correctly differentiate the abnormal uptake that is potentially pathologic from the physiological uptake. So while interpreting a PET/CT, one must be aware of normal biodistribution and different physiological variants of FDG uptake. (Source: Seminars in Nuclear Medicine)
Source: Seminars in Nuclear Medicine - April 20, 2017 Category: Nuclear Medicine Authors: Girish Kumar Parida, Shambo Guha Roy, Rakesh Kumar Source Type: research
