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INTRODUCTION: The aim of the study was to discuss therapeutic effect and prognosis of pancreatectomy in the treatment of congenital hyperinsulinism (CHI). MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 23 Chinese children with CHI, who had undergone pancreatectomy, were selected as the study objects. The clinical data, the results of the ¹⁸Fluoro-L-3-4 dihydroxyphenylalanine positron emission tomography/computerized tomography (¹⁸F-DOPA PET/CT) scanning, and the diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up were analysed retrospectively. RESULTS: Among the 23 cases, 14 patients were diagnosed with focal-type CHI via a ¹⁸F-DOPA PET/CT scan prior to the operation, with the lesions removed via partial pancreatectomy. After the operation, ten patients (71%) had normal blood glucose levels, while frequent feeding was required in four patients (29%) to control the hypoglycaemia. Three cases were diagnosed as diffuse-type CHI via preoperative scanning, two of which were treated by subtotal pancreatectomy. The other case was treated by near-total pancreatectomy, and the blood glucose level was normal following the operation. The remaining six cases were not diagnosed via the pancreatic scanning prior to the operation due to the limitation of certain conditions. Here, pancreatectomy was performed directly due to severe hypoglycaemia. CONCLUSIONS: ¹⁸F-DOPA PET/CT scanning was a reliable method for determining the histological type and localizing the lesion before the operation. Partial pancreatectomy for focal-type CHI had a high cure rate.

Objective: To compare brain metabolism using [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose ([18F]FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) in total thyroidectomy patients during hypothyroidism (levothyroxine withdrawal) or under recombinant human thyroid-stimulating hormone (rhTSH) against levothyroxine intake. Methods: A total of 12 patients were randomly divided into two groups. One group underwent the first [18F]FDG PET/CT brain scan after levothyroxine withdrawal (hypothyroidism condition) and repeated the scan 6 months later during regular levothyroxine intake (replacement condition). The other group underwent the first [18F]FDG PET/CT scan after receiving an rhTSH injection and maintained regular levothyroxine intake (rhTSH condition), and repeated the scan 7 months later during regular levothyroxine intake without rhTSH administration. The intra-group regional brain metabolisms were compared. Results: Under the hypothyroidism condition, brain metabolism was significantly reduced, namely in the bilateral pre-frontal, temporal, anterior cingulate, and primary motor cortices, insula, and striatum (uncorrected voxelwise p < 0.005); No significant differences were found between the rhTSH and replacement conditions. Conclusion: rhTSH administration could be a better option than levothyroxine withdrawal for 131I treatment, serum thyroglobulin measurement, or radioiodine scanning for patient follow-up.

Objective(s):Acute pyelonephritis presents with high-grade fever, dysuria, flank pain, leukocytosis, and microscopic hematuria. Urine culture aids in the diagnosis of this infection. It can be complicated or uncomplicated. Complicated pyelonephritis includes uncontrolled diabetes, transplant, pregnancy, acute or chronic renal failure, structural abnormality of the urinary tract, immunocompromised state, and hospital-acquired infections. Gram-negative bacteria commonly involved are Escherichia, Klebsiella, Proteus, and Enterobacter. The FDG PET/CT helps detect occult causes of fever, such as skeletal tuberculosis, thyroiditis, and lymphoma, when other investigations are inconclusive. We present three cases of pyrexia of unknown origin (PUO) in whom FDG PET/CT helped localize the focus of infection in the kidneys.Methods:The 18F-FDG PET/CT was performed on all three cases and images were acquired using the Biograph Horizon PET/CT system. Results:A cortical-based focus of FDG uptake was localized in the kidneys. The focus of abnormality was persistent following diuretic administration at 1-hour delayed regional image. Two cases had supportive evidence of pyelonephritis on DMSA scan. One case also had frank pus drained after DJ stenting of the affected side. All of them responded to treatment.Conclusion:Physiologic excretion of FDG in the urinary tract may interfere with the detection of the focus of infection in the kidneys on FDG PET/CT. However, occult infection in the kidneys may be detected with adequate precautions, such as the use of diuretics and delayed imaging, as illustrated in this case report. Routine investigations were noncontributory in all three cases presenting with PUO. However, FDG PET provided a diagnostic clue for pyelonephritis.

Purpose 68  Ga-FAPI (fibroblast activation protein inhibitor) is a rapidly evolving and highly promising radiotracer for PET/CT imaging, presenting excellent results in a variety of tumor entities, particularly in epithelial carcinomas. This retrospective analysis sought to evaluate the potential and impact of FAPI-PET/CT in rare cancer diseases with respect to improvement in staging and therapy, based on tracer uptake in normal organs and tumors. Material and methods Fifty-five patients with rare tumor entities, defined by a prevalence of 1 person out of 2000 or less, received a 68  Ga-FAPI-PET/CT scan. Fourteen women and 41 men (median age 60) were included within the following subgroups: cancer of unknown primary ( n  = 10), head and neck cancer ( n  = 13), gastrointestinal and biliary-pancreatic cancer ( n  = 17), urinary tract cancer ( n  = 4), neuroendocrine cancer ( n  = 4), and others ( n  = 7). Tracer uptake was quantified by standardized uptake values SUVmax and SUVmean and the tumor-to-background ratio (TBR) was determined (SUVmax tumor/SUVmean organ). Results In 20 out of 55 patients, the primary tumor was identified and 31 patients presented metastases ( n  = 88), characterized by a high mean SUVmax in primary (10.1) and metastatic lesions (7.6). The highest uptake was observed in liver metastases ( n  = 6) with a mean SUVmax of 9.8 and a high TBR of 8.7, closely followed by peritoneal carcinomatosis ( n  = 16) presenting a mean SUVmax of 9.8 and an excellent TBR of 29.6. In terms of the included subgroups, the highest uptake regarding mean SUVmax was determined in gastrointestinal and biliary-pancreatic cancer with 9.8 followed closely by urinary tract cancer with 9.5 and head and neck cancer (9.1). Conclusion Due to excellent tumor visualization and, thereby, sharp contrasts in terms of high TBRs in primary and metastatic lesions in different rare malignancies, 68  Ga-FAPI-PET/CT crystallizes as a powerful and valuable imaging tool, particularly with respect to epithelial carcinomas, and therefore an enhancement to standard diagnostics imaging methodologies. The realization of further and prospective studies is of large importance to confirm the potential of FAP imaging in oncology.

Background In certain cases, some institutions use fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography combined with CT (FDG-PET-CT) scans to assess response to neo-adjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in lymph node-positive breast cancer (cN+), to determine the extent of surgery and subsequently radiotherapy. In this study, we assessed the diagnostic accuracy of FDG-PET-CT to determine the axillary response to NAC using the histopathology results as the golden standard. Methods Between 2016 and 2022, all women with cN+ breast cancer receiving NAC and axillary surgery were retrospectively identified. Patients who underwent pre- and post-NAC staging with FDG-PET-CT were included. Excluded were patients with previous ipsilateral breast cancer, occult breast cancer or bilateral breast cancer. The histopathology lymph node results from surgery were used to calculate the diagnostic accuracy of FDG-PET-CT for detecting axillary lymph node metastases post-NAC. Results Seventy-five patients were included. Forty-one patients (55%) had histologically proven axillary metastatic disease at the response evaluation after NAC, although FDG-PET positivity was only apparent in nine of these patients. There was a sensitivity of 22% (95% CI 11–38%) for FDG-PET-CT in detecting axillary lymph node metastases after NAC and a specificity of 94% (95% CI 80–99%). The positive predictive value was 82% (95% CI 48–98%) and the negative predictive value (NPV) was 50% (95% CI 37–63%). Conclusions FDG-PET-CT scans have a low sensitivity and NPV to identify residual disease after NAC, indicating that these scans are unlikely to aid in decision making. Omission of post-NAC FDG-PET-CT should be considered in lymph node response evaluation unless other clinical indications with no other alternative.

Purpose Brain metastases are rare in patients with prostate cancer and portend poor outcome. Prostate-specific membrane antigen positron emission tomography (PSMA PET)/CT scans including the brain have identified incidental tumors. We sought to identify the incidental brain tumor detection rate of PSMA PET/CT performed at initial diagnosis or in the setting of biochemical recurrence. Methods An institutional database was queried for patients who underwent 68 Ga-PSMA-11 or 18 F-DCFPyL ( 18 F-piflufolastat) PET/CT imaging at an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center from 1/2018 to 12/2022. Imaging reports and clinical courses were reviewed to identify brain lesions and describe clinical and pathologic features. Results Two-thousand seven hundred and sixty-three patients underwent 3363 PSMA PET/CT scans in the absence of neurologic symptoms. Forty-four brain lesions were identified, including 33 PSMA-avid lesions: 10 intraparenchymal metastases (30%), 4 dural-based metastases (12%), 16 meningiomas (48%), 2 pituitary macroadenomas (6%), and 1 epidermal inclusion cyst (3%) (incidences of 0.36, 0.14, 0.58, 0.07, and 0.04%). The mean parenchymal metastasis diameter and mean SUVmax were 1.99 cm (95%CI:1.25–2.73) and 4.49 (95%CI:2.41–6.57), respectively. At the time of parenchymal brain metastasis detection, 57% of patients had no concurrent extracranial disease, 14% had localized prostate disease only, and 29% had extracranial metastases. Seven of 8 patients with parenchymal brain metastases remain alive at a median 8.8 months follow-up. Conclusion Prostate cancer brain metastases are rare, especially in the absence of widespread metastatic disease. Nevertheless, incidentally detected brain foci of PSMA uptake may represent previously unknown prostate cancer metastases, even in small lesions and in the absence of systemic disease.

Background Interstitial lung disease (ILD) and its rapid progression (RP) are the main contributors to unfavourable outcomes of patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM). This study aimed to identify the clinical value of PET/CT scans in IIM-ILD patients and to construct a predictive model for RP-ILD. Methods Adult IIM-ILD patients who were hospitalized at four divisions of the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine (FAHZJU), from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2020 were reviewed. PET/CT scans and other characteristics of patients who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were collected and analysed. Results A total of 61 IIM-ILD patients were enrolled in this study. Twenty-one patients (34.4%) developed RP-ILD, and 24 patients (39.3%) died during follow-up. After false discovery rate (FDR) correction, the percent-predicted diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide (DLCO%, P = 0.014), bilateral lung mean standard uptake value (SUVmean, P = 0.014) and abnormal mediastinal lymph node ( P = 0.045) were significantly different between the RP-ILD and non-RP-ILD groups. The subsequent univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses verified our findings. A “DLM” model was established by including the above three values to predict RP-ILD with a cut-off value of ≥ 2 and an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.905. Higher bilateral lung SUVmean ( P = 0.019) and spleen SUVmean ( P = 0.011) were observed in IIM-ILD patients who died within 3 months, and a moderate correlation was recognized between the two values. Conclusions Elevated bilateral lung SUVmean, abnormal mediastinal lymph nodes and decreased DLCO% were significantly associated with RP-ILD in IIM-ILD patients. The “DLM” model was valuable in predicting RP-ILD and requires further validation.

Objective The application of [ 18 F]FDG PET/CT in predicting histologic response to induction chemotherapy in patients with Ewing sarcoma (EWS) has been proposed using the values of pre-post treatment SUV max as a referral parameter, although with heterogeneous results. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of [ 18 F]FDG PET/CT volumetric parameters (metabolic tumour volume (MTV) and total lesion glycolysis (TLG)) as compared to SUV max to predict response to chemotherapy and clinical outcome in patients with localised EWS of bone and soft-tissue. Methods Twenty-eight patients with non-metastatic EWS of bone ( n = 20) and soft tissues ( n = 8) who underwent a [ 18 F]FDG PET/CT scan before (PET 1 ) and after induction chemotherapy (PET 2 ) were enclosed in the analysis. Values of PET metrics (SUV max , MTV, TLG) at diagnosis and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy as well as the percentage change between PET 1 and PET 2 (ΔSUV, ΔMTV and ΔTLG) were correlated to histological response and to progression-free survival (PFS). Results ΔTLG (cut-off: -60%) is the best predictor for histologic response with 100% sensitivity and 77.8% specificity. MTV 1 > 33.4 cm 3 and TLG 1 > 112 were also associated with a favourable histologic response (sensitivity 80% and specificity 77.8% for both). On multivariate analysis, SUV 2 (> 3.3) and ΔTLG (< -18%) were independent predictors of worse PFS. Conclusions [ 18 F]FDG PET/CT could accurately predict histologic response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with EWS, also showing a possible prognostic value for future disease relapse. Key Points • The variation of the PET parameter tumour lesion glycolysis (TLG) can predict the histologic response to induction chemotherapy (sensitivity 100%, specificity 77.8%), in patients with Ewing sarcoma. • The percentage variation of TLG and the value of the SUVmax at PET scan after chemotherapy show a prognostic role for future disease relapse. The combination of both the parameters identifies three prognostic classes of patients with low, intermediate and high risk of disease relapse.

This review aims to compare the diagnostic performance of multidetector CT (MDCT), MRI, including diffusion-weighted imaging, and FDG PET/CT in the detection of peritoneal metastases (PMs) in ovarian cancer (OC). A comprehensive search was performed for articles published from 2000 to February 2023. The inclusion criteria were the following: diagnosis/suspicion of PMs in patients with ovarian/fallopian/primary peritoneal cancer; initial staging or suspicion of recurrence; MDCT, MRI and/or FDG PET/CT performed for the detection of PMs; population of at least 10 patients; surgical results, histopathologic analysis, and/or radiologic follow-up, used as reference standard; and per-patient and per-region data and data for calculating sensitivity and specificity reported. In total, 33 studies were assessed, including 487 women with OC and PMs. On a per-patient basis, MRI (p = 0.03) and FDG PET/CT (p < 0.01) had higher sensitivity compared to MDCT. MRI and PET/CT had comparable sensitivities (p = 0.84). On a per-lesion analysis, no differences in sensitivity estimates were noted between MDCT and MRI (p = 0.25), MDCT and FDG PET/CT (p = 0.68), and MRI and FDG PET/CT (p = 0.35). Based on our results, FDG PET/CT and MRI are the preferred imaging modalities for the detection of PMs in OC. However, the value of FDG PET/CT and MRI compared to MDCT needs to be determined. Future research to address the limitations of the existing studies and the need for standardization and to explore the cost-effectiveness of the three imaging modalities is required.

BackgroundWe designed a deep learning model for assessing 18F-FDG PET/CT for early prediction of local and distant failures for patients with locally advanced cervical cancer.MethodsAll 142 patients with cervical cancer underwent 18F-FDG PET/CT for pretreatment staging and received allocated treatment. To augment the amount of image data, each tumor was represented as 11 slice sets each of which contains 3 2D orthogonal slices to acquire a total of 1562 slice sets. In each round of k-fold cross-validation, a well-trained proposed model and a slice-based optimal threshold were derived from a training set and used to classify each slice set in the test set into the categories of with or without local or distant failure. The classification results of each tumor were aggregated to summarize a tumor-based prediction result.ResultsIn total, 21 and 26 patients experienced local and distant failures, respectively. Regarding local recurrence, the tumor-based prediction result summarized from all test sets demonstrated that the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy were 71%, 93%, 63%, 95%, and 89%, respectively. The corresponding values for distant metastasis were 77%, 90%, 63%, 95%, and 87%, respectively.ConclusionThis is the first study to use deep learning model for assessing 18F-FDG PET/CT images which is capable of predicting treatment outcomes in cervical cancer patients.Key Points• This is the first study to use deep learning model for assessing18F-FDG PET/CT images which is capable of predicting treatment outcomes in cervical cancer patients.• All 142 patients with cervical cancer underwent18F-FDG PET/CT for pretreatment staging and received allocated treatment. To augment the amount of image data, each tumor was represented as 11 slice sets each of which contains 3 2D orthogonal slices to acquire a total of 1562 slice sets.• For local recurrence, all test sets demonstrated that the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy were 71%, 93%, 63%, 95%, and 89%, respectively. The corresponding values for distant metastasis were 77%, 90%, 63%, 95%, and 87%, respectively.