Nuclear Medicine-A Name for Now and the Future.

ABSTRACT: Our article addresses the prevailing trend of new terminology introduced alongside the progress being made in nuclear medicine. Our article provides a historic, current, and future perspective.

Advances in Radiopharmaceutical Sciences for Vascular Inflammation Imaging: Focus on Clinical Applications.

Biomedical imaging technologies offer identification of several anatomic and molecular features of disease pathogenesis. Molecular imaging techniques to assess cellular processes in vivo have been useful in advancing our understanding of several vascular inflammatory diseases. For the non-invasive molecular imaging of vascular inflammation, nuclear medicine constitutes one of the best imaging modalities, thanks to its high sensitivity for the detection of probes in tissues. 2-[18F]fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose ([18F]FDG) is currently the most widely used radiopharmaceutical for molecular imaging of vascular inflammatory diseases such as atherosclerosis and large-vessel vasculitis. The combination of [18F]FDG and positron emission tomography (PET) imaging has become a powerful tool to identify and monitor non-invasively inflammatory activities over time but suffers from several limitations including a lack of specificity and avid background in different localizations. The use of novel radiotracers may help to better understand the underlying pathophysiological processes and overcome some limitations of [18F]FDG PET for the imaging of vascular inflammation. This review examines how [18F]FDG PET has given us deeper insight into the role of inflammation in different vascular pathologies progression and discusses perspectives for alternative radiopharmaceuticals that could provide a more specific and simple identification of pathologies where vascular inflammation is implicated. Use of these novel PET tracers could lead to a better understanding of underlying disease mechanisms and help inform the identification and stratification of patients for newly emerging immune-modulatory therapies. Future research is needed to realize the true clinical translational value of PET imaging in vascular inflammatory diseases.

Theranostic Advances in Breast Cancer in Nuclear Medicine.

The implication of 'theranostic' refers to targeting an identical receptor for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes, by the same radioligand, simultaneously or separately. In regard to extensive efforts, many considerable theranostic tracers have been developed in recent years. Emerging evidence strongly demonstrates the tendency of nuclear medicine towards therapies based on a diagnosis. This review is focused on the examples of targeted radiopharmaceuticals for the imaging and therapy of breast cancer.

Expert consensus on the safety prevention and control of nuclear medicine diagnosis and treatment during the outbreak of COVID-19 (1st edition): (translated from Chinese version).

In December 2019, an infectious disease caused by a new type of coronavirus infection was prevalent in Wuhan and across the country. On January 20, 2020, the National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China issued No.1 Announcement, which incorporated the novel coronavirus pneumonia into the Class B infectious disease according to the Law on Prevention and Control of Infectious Disease, but the disease should be adopted in the management of Class A infectious disease. In order to effectively control the source of infection, cut off the transmission route, protect the susceptible population, ensure the medical quality and medical safety, perform epidemic prevention and control, and comprehensively guarantee the life safety and physical health of medical staff, patients, and family members, it is very important to organize and carry out nuclear medicine diagnosis and treatment scientifically and safely. According to the national prevention and control policy, Chinese Society of Nuclear Medicine and editorial board of the Chinese Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging organized professionals to formulate the expert consensus on the safety prevention process of nuclear medicine imaging and nuclide therapy during the period of new coronavirus infection.

Artificial Neural Networks in Cardiovascular Diseases and its Potential for Clinical Application in Molecular Imaging.

In medical imaging, Artificial Intelligence is described as the ability of a system to properly interpret and learn from external data, acquiring knowledge to achieve specific goals and tasks through flexible adaptation. The number of possible applications of Artificial Intelligence is also huge in clinical medicine and cardiovascular diseases. To describe for the first time in literature, the main results of articles about Artificial Intelligence potential for clinical applications in molecular imaging techniques, and to describe its advancements in cardiovascular diseases assessed with nuclear medicine imaging modalities. A comprehensive search strategy was used based on SCOPUS and PubMed databases. From all studies published in English, we selected the most relevant articles that evaluated the technological insights of AI in nuclear cardiology applications. Artificial Intelligence may improve patient care in many different fields, from the semi-automatization of the medical work, through the technical aspect of image preparation, interpretation, the calculation of additional factors based on data obtained during scanning, to the prognostic prediction and risk-- group selection. Myocardial implementation of Artificial Intelligence algorithms in nuclear cardiology can improve and facilitate the diagnostic and predictive process, and global patient care. Building large databases containing clinical and image data is a first but essential step to create and train automated diagnostic/prognostic models able to help the clinicians to make unbiased and faster decisions for precision healthcare.

Theranostics in Nuclear Medicine: Emerging and Re-emerging Integrated Imaging and Therapies in the Era of Precision Oncology.

Theranostics refers to the pairing of diagnostic biomarkers with therapeutic agents that share a specific target in diseased cells or tissues. Nuclear medicine, particularly with regard to applications in oncology, is currently one of the greatest components of the theranostic concept in clinical and research scenarios. Theranostics in nuclear medicine, or nuclear theranostics, refers to the use of radioactive compounds to image biologic phenomena by means of expression of specific disease targets such as cell surface receptors or membrane transporters, and then to use specifically designed agents to deliver ionizing radiation to the tissues that express these targets. The nuclear theranostic approach has sparked increasing interest and gained importance in parallel to the growth in molecular imaging and personalized medicine, helping to provide customized management for various diseases; improving patient selection, prediction of response and toxicity, and determination of prognosis; and avoiding futile and costly diagnostic examinations and treatment of many diseases. The authors provide an overview of theranostic approaches in nuclear medicine, starting with a review of the main concepts and unique features of nuclear theranostics and aided by a retrospective discussion of the progress of theranostic agents since early applications, with illustrative cases emphasizing the imaging features. Advanced concepts regarding the role of fluorine 18-fluorodeoxyglucose PET in theranostics, as well as developments in and future directions of theranostics, are discussed. ©RSNA, 2020 See discussion on this article by Greenspan and Jadvar.

A quick glance at selected topics in this issue.

"A quick glance at selected topics in this issue" aims to highlight contents of the Journal and provide a quick review to the readers.

Current trends in pediatric nuclear medicine: a Society for Pediatric Radiology membership survey.

BACKGROUND: Pediatric nuclear medicine is evolving, and its practice patterns are uncertain. Knowledge of the current trends in pediatric nuclear medicine might be helpful to direct local decisions, including expectations for patient care, needs for capital acquisitions, and staffing recruitment strategies. OBJECTIVE: To provide data regarding the current practice of pediatric nuclear medicine via a Society for Pediatric Radiology (SPR) membership survey. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The SPR emailed our 25-question survey to all 1,847 SPR members in August 2018 and we accepted responses until April 2019. Questions focused on nuclear medicine staffing, positron emission tomography (PET) utilization, and radiotherapy availability. Respondents could indicate their affiliated hospital, which we used for data cataloguing only. Analysis of survey responses was blinded to reported institution. We analyzed response data using contingency tables. Independence testing between categorical variables based on proportions of physicians with additional nuclear medicine board certification was performed on a subset of questions regarding PET and therapy practices. RESULTS: Sixty-seven people from at least 29 hospitals responded to the survey, including all 10 of the 2018-2019 U.S. News & World Report best children's hospitals. The majority (48/67, 71.6%) of respondents indicated that pediatric nuclear medicine examinations were interpreted in the pediatric radiology department by pediatric radiologists and that most physicians interpreting the exams (43/67, 64.2%) did not have subspecialty certification in nuclear medicine or nuclear radiology. Most facilities offered PET/CT (57/67, 85.1%); few offered PET/MRI (12/67, 17.9%). Most facilities offered radiotherapies (57/67, 85.1%) but at most of these facilities (30/57, 52.6%), fewer than half the physicians who cover nuclear medicine were approved to administer therapies. In the subset analyses based on proportion of physicians with additional nuclear medicine board certification, there were statistically significant differences between the groups in availability of PET/MRI, lutetium-177 dotatate therapy programs, and percentages of physicians approved to administer therapies. CONCLUSION: Pediatric nuclear medicine is largely practiced by pediatric radiologists without subspecialty certification. Staffing, PET practices and therapies vary among practices, in part associated with the number of radiologists with nuclear medicine board certification.