Comparative efficiency of differential diagnostic methods for the identification of BRAF V600E gene mutation in papillary thyroid cancer (Review).

V-Raf murine sarcoma viral oncogene homolog B1 (BRAF) encodes a serine-threonine kinase. The V600E point mutation in the BRAF gene is the most common mutation, predominantly occurring in melanoma, and colorectal, thyroid and non-small cell lung cancer. Particularly in the context of thyroid cancer research, it is routinely employed as a molecular biomarker to assist in diagnosing and predicting the prognosis of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC), and to formulate targeted therapeutic strategies. Currently, several methods are utilized in clinical settings to detect BRAF V600E mutations in patients with PTC. However, the sensitivity and specificity of various detection techniques vary significantly, resulting in diverse detection outcomes. The present review highlights the advantages and disadvantages of the methods currently employed in medical practice, with the aim of guiding clinicians and researchers in selecting the most suitable detection approach for its high sensitivity, reproducibility and potential to develop targeted therapeutic regimens for patients with BRAF gene mutation-associated PTC.

A pilot study of [68Ga]Ga-fibroblast activation protein inhibitor-04 PET/CT in renal cell carcinoma.

OBJECTIVES: As a promising positron emission tomography (PET) tracer, [68Ga]Ga-fibroblast activation protein inhibitor-04([68Ga]Ga-FAPI-04) performs better than 2-[18F]fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose ([18F]FDG) at diagnosing primary and metastatic lesions in patients with various types of cancer. We investigated the utility of [68Ga]Ga-FAPI-04 PET/CT for the detection of primary and metastatic lesions in renal cell carcinoma (RCC). [18F]FDG PET/CT were used for comparison. METHODS: Twenty-two patients with suspected RCC or recurrent RCC were enrolled in our study. Among these patients, 14 were newly diagnosed with RCC, 3 had recurrent RCC, and 5 were excluded from further analysis due to having benign renal tumours. Seventeen patients with RCC underwent [68Ga]Ga-FAPI-04 PET/CT, and 6 of them also received [18F]FDG PET/CT. The positive detection rates were calculated and compared with those in patients who underwent both scans. RESULTS: Data from 17 patients with RCC (median age: 60.5 years, interquartile range [IQR]: 54-70 years) were evaluated. The positive detection rate of [68Ga]Ga-FAPI-04 PET/CT for RCC was 64.7% (11/17). Lymph node metastases (n = 44), lung metastasis (n = 1), and bone metastasis (n = 1) were detected. Six patients with RCC underwent [68Ga]Ga-FAPI-04 and [18F]FDG PET/CT. [68Ga]Ga-FAPI-04 PET/CT showed a higher positive detection rate than [18F]FDG PET/CT in detecting RCC (83.3% [5/6] vs. 50% [3/6], P = 0.545). Additionally, [68Ga]Ga-FAPI-04 PET/CT has higher SUVmax (3.20 [IQR: 2.91-5.80 vs. 2.71 [IQR: 2.13-3.10], P = 0.116) and tumour-to-background ratio (TBR) values (1.60 [IQR: 1.33-3.67] vs. 0.86 [0.48-1.21], P = 0.028) than [18F]FDG PET/CT. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that [68Ga]Ga-FAPI-04 PET/CT has potential value in RCC diagnosis. Further studies are warranted to validate these results. ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE: Clinical utility of [68Ga]Ga-FAPI-04 in RCC remains unclear, and there are not many similar studies in the literature. We evaluated the role of [68Ga]Ga-FAPI-04 in diagnosing RCC.

Therapeutic effect of vitamin D in Hashimoto's thyroiditis: a prospective, randomized and controlled clinical trial in China.

BACKGROUND: The study aims to explore the clinical effects of Vitamin D (VitD) supplements for Hashimoto's Thyroiditis (HT), which are unclear according to other studies. METHODS: Female patients with newly diagnosed HT from January to June in 2018 were included. This study is registered in the Chinese Clinical Trials Registry with registration number ChiCTR1800014619 (URL: https://www.chictr.org.cn/). Patients were randomly assigned to the treatment group and the control group. The treated group were further randomly assigned to a VitD supplement group or VitD & Levothyroxine (L-T4) supplement group. After 6 months, we recorded and compared various indicators between different groups. RESULTS: A total of 179 patients, aged 12 to 75, were used for statistical analysis. A significant decrease in Thyroid Peroxidase Antibody (TPOAb) level was observed (351.70±183.25 vs. 246.37±157.39, P<0.001) in the VitD-treated group compared to the control group after 6 months. Free Triiodothyronine (FT3) and Free Thyroxine (FT4) level were increased (FT3: 4.30±0.64 vs. 4.84±0.9, P<0.001; FT4: 15.15±1.93 vs. 17.38±2.97, P<0.001), and Thyroid-Stimulating Hormone (THS) level was decreased (3.58±1.78 vs. 2.25±1.22, P<0.001) in the VitD-treated group compared to the control group. CONCLUSION: VitD supplementation can effectively slow progression of hypothyroidism, improve thyroid function, and reduce the anti-thyroid antibody level. This suggests it is useful for HT.

A novel transcriptional repressor specifically regulates xylanase gene 1 in Trichoderma reesei.

BACKGROUND: The well-known industrial fungus Trichoderma reesei has an excellent capability of secreting a large amount of cellulases and xylanases. The induced expression of cellulase and xylanase genes is tightly controlled at the transcriptional level. However, compared to the intensive studies on the intricate regulatory mechanism of cellulase genes, efforts to understand how xylanase genes are regulated are relatively limited, which impedes the further improvement of xylanase production by T. reesei via rational strain engineering. RESULTS: To identify transcription factors involved in regulating xylanase gene expression in T. reesei, yeast one-hybrid screen was performed based on the promoters of two major extracellular xylanase genes xyn1 and xyn2. A putative transcription factor named XTR1 showing significant binding capability to the xyn1 promoter but not that of xyn2, was successfully isolated. Deletion of xtr1 significantly increased the transcriptional level of xyn1, but only exerted a minor promoting effect on that of xyn2. The xylanase activity was increased by ~ 50% with XTR1 elimination but the cellulase activity was hardly affected. Subcellular localization analysis of XTR1 fused to a green fluorescence protein demonstrated that XTR1 is a nuclear protein. Further analyses revealed the precise binding site of XTR1 and nucleotides critical for the binding within the xyn1 promoter. Moreover, competitive EMSAs indicated that XTR1 competes with the essential transactivator XYR1 for binding to the xyn1 promoter. CONCLUSIONS: XTR1 represents a new transcriptional repressor specific for controlling xylanase gene expression. Isolation and functional characterization of this new factor not only contribute to further understanding the stringent regulatory network of xylanase genes, but also provide important clues for boosting xylanase biosynthesis in T. reesei.

Corrigendum: A novel feature fusion network for multimodal emotion recognition from EEG and eye movement signals.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1234162.].

EEG-Based Emotion Recognition with Consideration of Individual Difference.

Electroencephalograms (EEGs) are often used for emotion recognition through a trained EEG-to-emotion models. The training samples are EEG signals recorded while participants receive external induction labeled as various emotions. Individual differences such as emotion degree and time response exist under the same external emotional inductions. These differences can lead to a decrease in the accuracy of emotion classification models in practical applications. The brain-based emotion recognition model proposed in this paper is able to sufficiently consider these individual differences. The proposed model comprises an emotion classification module and an individual difference module (IDM). The emotion classification module captures the spatial and temporal features of the EEG data, while the IDM introduces personalized adjustments to specific emotional features by accounting for participant-specific variations as a form of interference. This approach aims to enhance the classification performance of EEG-based emotion recognition for diverse participants. The results of our comparative experiments indicate that the proposed method obtains a maximum accuracy of 96.43% for binary classification on DEAP data. Furthermore, it performs better in scenarios with significant individual differences, where it reaches a maximum accuracy of 98.92%.

A novel feature fusion network for multimodal emotion recognition from EEG and eye movement signals.

Emotion recognition is a challenging task, and the use of multimodal fusion methods for emotion recognition has become a trend. Fusion vectors can provide a more comprehensive representation of changes in the subject's emotional state, leading to more accurate emotion recognition results. Different fusion inputs or feature fusion methods have varying effects on the final fusion outcome. In this paper, we propose a novel Multimodal Feature Fusion Neural Network model (MFFNN) that effectively extracts complementary information from eye movement signals and performs feature fusion with EEG signals. We construct a dual-branch feature extraction module to extract features from both modalities while ensuring temporal alignment. A multi-scale feature fusion module is introduced, which utilizes cross-channel soft attention to adaptively select information from different spatial scales, enabling the acquisition of features at different spatial scales for effective fusion. We conduct experiments on the publicly available SEED-IV dataset, and our model achieves an accuracy of 87.32% in recognizing four emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, and neutrality). The results demonstrate that the proposed model can better explore complementary information from EEG and eye movement signals, thereby improving accuracy, and stability in emotion recognition.

The body mass index is associated with increased temporal variability of functional connectivity in brain reward system.

The reward system has been proven to be contributed to the vulnerability of obesity. Previous fMRI studies have shown abnormal functional connectivity of the reward system in obesity. However, most studies were based on static index such as resting-state functional connectivity (FC), ignoring the dynamic changes over time. To investigate the dynamic neural correlates of obesity susceptibility, we used a large, demographically well-characterized sample from the Human Connectome Project (HCP) to determine the relationship of body mass index (BMI) with the temporal variability of FC from integrated multilevel perspectives, i.e., regional and within- and between-network levels. Linear regression analysis was used to investigate the association between BMI and temporal variability of FC, adjusting for covariates of no interest. We found that BMI was positively associated with regional FC variability in reward regions, such as the ventral orbitofrontal cortex and visual regions. At the intra-network level, BMI was positively related to the variability of FC within the limbic network (LN) and default mode network (DMN). At the inter-network level, variability of connectivity of LN with DMN, frontoparietal, sensorimotor, and ventral attention networks showed positive correlations with BMI. These findings provided novel evidence for abnormal dynamic functional interaction between the reward network and the rest of the brain in obesity, suggesting a more unstable state and over-frequent interaction of the reward network and other attention and cognitive networks. These findings, thus, provide novel insight into obesity interventions that need to decrease the dynamic interaction between reward networks and other brain networks through behavioral treatment and neural modulation.

Role of the Nitrogen Metabolism Regulator TAM1 in Regulation of Cellulase Gene Expression in Trichoderma reesei.

The filamentous fungus Trichoderma reesei is one of the most prolific cellulase producers and has been established as a model microorganism for investigating mechanisms modulating eukaryotic gene expression. Identification and functional characterization of transcriptional regulators involved in complex and stringent regulation of cellulase genes are, however, not yet complete. Here, a Zn(II)2Cys6-type transcriptional factor TAM1 that is homologous to Aspergillus nidulans TamA involved in nitrogen metabolism, was found not only to regulate ammonium utilization but also to control cellulase gene expression in T. reesei. Whereas Δtam1 cultivated with peptone as a nitrogen source did not exhibit a growth defect that was observed on ammonium, it was still significantly compromised in cellulase biosynthesis. The absence of TAM1 almost fully abrogated the rapid cellulase gene induction in a resting-cell-inducing system. Overexpression of gdh1 encoding the key ammonium assimilatory enzyme in Δtam1 rescued the growth defect on ammonium but not the defect in cellulase gene expression. Of note, mutation of the Zn(II)2Cys6 DNA-binding motif of TAM1 hardly affected cellulase gene expression, while a truncated ARE1 mutant lacking the C-terminal 12 amino acids that are required for the interaction with TAM1 interfered with cellulase biosynthesis. The defect in cellulase induction of Δtam1 was rescued by overexpression of the key transactivator for cellulase gene, XYR1. Our results thus identify a nitrogen metabolism regulator as a new modulator participating in the regulation of induced cellulase gene expression. IMPORTANCE Transcriptional regulators are able to integrate extracellular nutrient signals and exert a combinatorial control over various metabolic genes. A plethora of such factors therefore constitute a complex regulatory network ensuring rapid and accurate cellular response to acquire and utilize nutrients. Despite the in-depth mechanistic studies of functions of the Zn(II)2Cys6-type transcriptional regulator TamA and its orthologues in nitrogen utilization, their involvement in additional physiological processes remains unknown. In this study, we demonstrated that TAM1 exerts a dual regulatory role in mediating ammonium utilization and induced cellulase production in the well known cellulolytic fungus Trichoderma reesei, suggesting a potentially converged regulatory node between nitrogen utilization and cellulase biosynthesis. This study not only contributes to unveiling the intricate regulatory network underlying cellulase gene expression in cellulolytic fungus but also helps expand our knowledge of fungal strategies to achieve efficient and coordinated nutrient acquisition for rapid propagation.

Drainage volume on postoperative day one to predict clinically relevant postoperative pancreatic fistula following distal pancreatectomy.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to determine how the drain fluid volume on the first day after surgery (DFV 1) can be used to predict clinically relevant post-operative pancreatic fistula following distal pancreatectomy (DP). METHOD: A retrospective analysis of 175 patients who underwent distal pancreatectomy in hepatobiliary surgery at Chengdu 363 Hospital (China) from January 2015 to January 2021 has been performed. Depending on the presence of pancreatic fistula, all patients were divided into two groups: POPF and non-POPF. The clinical factors were analyzed using SPSS 17.0 and Medcalc software. In order to assess the effectiveness of DFV 1 in predicting POPF after surgery, ROC curves were used to calculate its cut-off point,, which yielded sensitivity and negative predictive value of 100% for excluding POPF. RESULT: Of the 175 patients who underwent distal pancreatectomy, the incidence of overall pancreatic fistula was 36%, but the rate of clinically significant (grade B and C) fistula, as defined by the International Study Group on Pancreatic Fistula, 30 was only 17.1% (28 grade B and 2 grade C fistula). The results from univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that drain fluid volume on the first postoperative day (OR = 0.95, P = 0.03), drainage fluid amylase level on POD1 (OR = 0.99, P = 0.01) and the preoperative ALT level (OR = 0.73, P = 0.02) were independent risk factors associated with CR-POPF. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis revealed that a drainage volume of 156 mL within 24 h and an amylase greater than 3219.2 U/L on the first postoperative day were the optimal thresholds associated with complications. CONCLUSION: After distal pancreatectomy, the drainage volume on the first postoperative day can predict the presence of a clinically relevant pancreatic fistula.

Construction of a Tumor Immune Microenvironment-Related Prognostic Model in BRAF-Mutated Papillary Thyroid Cancer.

BRAF mutation is a representative oncogenic mutation, with a frequency of 60% in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), but the reasons for the poor prognosis and more aggressive course of BRAF-mutated PTC are controversial. Tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) is an essential factor permitting the development and progression of malignancy, but whether TIME participates in the prognosis of BRAF-mutated PTC has not yet been reported. The primary goal of the present study was to provide a comprehensive TIME-related prognostic model to increase the predictive accuracy of progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with BRAF-mutated PTC. In this study, we analyzed the mRNA-seq data and corresponding clinical data of PTC patients obtained from the TCGA database. By calculating the TIME scores (immune score, stromal score and ESTIMATE score), the BRAF mutation group (n=237) was dichotomized into the high- and low-score groups. By functional analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in different high/low score groups, we identified 2 key TIME-related genes, HTR3A and NIPAL4, which affected PFS in BRAF-mutated PTC. A risk scoring system was developed by multivariate Cox analysis based on the abovementioned 2 TIME-related genes. Then, the BRAF-mutated cohort was divided into the high- and low-risk groups using the median risk score as a cutoff. A high risk score correlated positively with a higher HTR3A/NIPAL4 expression level but negatively with PFS in BRAF-mutated PTC. Ultimately, a nomogram was constructed by combining risk score with clinical parameter (Tumor stage), and the areas under the ROC curve (AUCs) of the nomogram for predicting 1-, 3- and 5-year PFS were then calculated and found to be 0.694, 0.707 and 0.738, respectively, indicating the improved accuracy and clinical utility of the nomogram versus the risk score model in the BRAF-mutated PTC cohort. Moreover, we determined the associations between prognostic genes or risk score and immune cell infiltration by two-way ANOVA. In the high-risk score, high HTR3A expression, and high NIPAL4 expression groups, higher infiltration of immune cells was found. Collectively, these findings confirm that the nomogram is effective in predicting the outcome of BRAF-mutated PTC and will add a spatial dimension to the developing risk stratification system.

Construction of a Signature Model to Predict the Radioactive Iodine Response of Papillary Thyroid Cancer.

Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) accounts for about 90% of thyroid cancer. There are approximately 20%-30% of PTC patients showing disease persistence/recurrence and resistance to radioactive iodine (RAI) treatment. For these PTC patients with RAI refractoriness, the prognosis is poor. In this study, we aimed to establish a comprehensive prognostic model covering multiple signatures to increase the predictive accuracy for progression-free survival (PFS) of PTC patients with RAI treatment. The expression profiles of mRNAs and miRNAs as well as the clinical information of PTC patients were extracted from TCGA and GEO databases. A series of bioinformatics methods were successfully applied to filtrate a two-RNA model (IPCEF1 and hsa-mir-486-5p) associated with the prognosis of RAI-therapy. Finally, the RNA-based risk score was calculated based on the Cox coefficient of the individual RNA, which achieved good performances by the time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (tROC) curve and PFS analyses. Furthermore, the predictive power of the nomogram, integrated with the risk score and clinical parameters (age at diagnosis and tumor stage), was assessed by tROC curves. Collectively, our study demonstrated high precision in predicting the RAI response of PTC patients.

Potential Applications of 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT in the Evaluation of Salivary Gland Uptake Function: Preliminary Observations and Comparison with 99mTcO4 - Salivary Gland Scintigraphy.

Purpose: To preliminarily evaluate the feasibility and potential of using 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT in evaluating the function of salivary glands and lacrimal glands in comparison with 99mTc-pertechnetate (99mTcO4 -) salivary gland scintigraphy (SGS). Methods: A retrospective study was performed in 15 patients with different degrees of xerostomia and suspected salivary gland dysfunction. Each patient underwent 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT first and SGS the next day, and the findings of both scans were compared. Results: The results of 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT and SGS were consistent in 12/15 patients (80%) and were inconsistent in the remaining patients (20%). For 5 (33.3%) of 15 patients, 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT provided more information than did SGS. Additionally, 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT corrected the misdiagnosis by SGS for 1 patient. Conclusions: 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT is a potentially useful imaging tool for evaluating the function of salivary glands and lacrimal glands. 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT can be a promising supplement to SGS, and its clinical value deserves further study.

The predictive value of procalcitonin for postoperative early pancreatic fistula.

BACKGROUND: To investigate the early prediction value of procalcitonin (PCT) in pancreatic fistula (POPF) after pancreatoduodenectomy (PD). METHOD: Retrospective analysis of clinical data of 67 patients undergoing pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) and 19 patients undergoing distalpancreatectomy (DP) were performed in the Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Leshan People's Hospital from January 2017 to December 2018. All patients were divided into POPF group and non-POPF group depending on the presence of pancreatic fistula. And fistulas were classified according to the ISGPF classification scheme. Plasma PCT levels, serum CRP concentration, and WBC counts were assessed preoperatively and on postoperative days (PODs) 1, 3, and 5. Statistical analyses were performed with statistical software. The ROC curve was used to analyze the efficacy of PCT and CRP in POPF prediction after surgery and determine their Cut-off value. RESULT: There were no statistically significant differences identified in age, gender, BMI, diabetes, abdominal surgery history, preoperative laboratory data, operation time, intraoperative bleeding volume, tumor nature and medical expenses of PD patients between the two groups (P > 0.05). While the incidence of postoperative hyperglycemia, postoperative ICU rate and postoperative hospital stay were statistically significant (P < 0.05). The AUC for PCT diagnosis of pancreatic fistula 1 day after surgery was 0.77 (95% CI: 0.675 ~ 0.860). Compared with CRP [0.53 (95% CI: 0.420 ~ 0.639)] and WBC [0.60 (95% CI: 0.490 ~ 0.705)], the optimal cut-off value (cut-off) was 0.67 µg/L. At this time, the sensitivity and specificity of detecting pancreatic fistula were 73.68 and 76.12%, respectively. The results at 3 days after surgery were similar to those at 5 days after surgery. And DP patients had similar results as PD patients. CONCLUSION: The PCT is valuable for early prediction of pancreatic fistula after Pancreaticoduodenectomy.

Comparative evaluation of 68Ga-labelled TATEs: the impact of chelators on imaging.

BACKGROUND: 68Ga-labelled peptides targeting somatostatin receptor 2 (SSTR2) have demonstrated encouraging results in managing patients with neuroendocrine tumours (NETs). In addition to metal chelation, bifunctional chelators have also been found to impact imaging outcomes due to their differences in stability, charge, hydrophilicity, etc. In the present work, a comparative pharmacokinetic evaluation and imaging characteristics were performed between 68Ga-labelled somatostatin analogues (TATE) using NOTA (1,4,7-triazacyclononane-1,4,7-triacetic acid) and DOTA (1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid) as bifunctional chelating agents (BFCAs). RESULTS: Both 68Ga-NOTA-TATE and 68Ga-DOTA-TATE were obtained with high radiochemical purity. 68Ga-NOTA-TATE demonstrated higher in vitro stability (≥ 99%) than 68Ga-DOTA-TATE (≥ 95%) after 3 h of incubation. The water solubilities (partition coefficients, - 1.76 ± 0.06 vs. - 2.72 ± 0.16) and plasma protein binding rates (12.12% vs. 30.6%) were lower for 68Ga-NOTA-TATE than for 68Ga-DOTA-TATE. Differential pharmacokinetics and comparable tumour affinities (within 1 h) were observed in AR42J tumour-bearing mice. Healthy volunteer imaging studies showed comparable distribution patterns of these two imaging agents. However, the maximum standardized uptake values (SUVmax) of the two tracers varied in each organ. The two PET agents demonstrated almost identical SUVmax values in the kidneys. 68Ga-NOTA-TATE did have a lower SUVmax in most other organs compared with 68Ga-DOTA-TATE, including the liver (4.2 vs. 10.1), potentially due to the lower protein binding rate. CONCLUSION: 68Ga-NOTA-TATE and 68Ga-DOTA-TATE demonstrated comparable tumour uptake in an AR42J mouse model. An initial clinical study revealed that 68Ga-NOTA-TATE may have reduced background uptake in the major organs such as the liver. Although the subject numbers were limited, further investigation of 68Ga-NOTA-TATE is warranted for detecting SSTR2-positive neuroendocrine tumours.

Preliminary Studies of 177Lu-Diethylenetriamine Penta-Acetic Acid-Deoxyglucose in Hepatic Tumor-Bearing Mice.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore the potential use of 177Lu-diethylenetriamine penta-acetic acid-deoxyglucose (177Lu-DTPA-DG) as a radiopharmaceutical for hepatic tumor treatment. Methods: Lutetium-177 (177Lu) was labeled with DTPA-DG by adding 2 mCi 177LuCl3 to 0.05 mg DTPA-DG (pH 5-6) at room temperature for 1 h. The quality of the177Lu-DTPA-DG solutions was determined by thin-layer chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography. Cellular uptake studies with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), 177Lu-DTPA-DG and 177Lu-DTPA and a blocking study with 1.0 mg d-glucose were performed. Biodistribution, imaging, and radiotherapy studies of 177Lu-DTPA-DG were performed with the SMMC-7721 model. Results: 177Lu-DTPA-DG had a high radiochemical purity (>97%). The cellular uptake of 177Lu-DTPA-DG was much higher than that of the 177Lu-DTPA. The biodistribution of 177Lu-DTPA-DG demonstrated that the complex accumulated in the tumor with high tumor/blood and tumor/muscle ratios. The tumors in mice in the 177Lu-DTPA-DG group clearly displayed the high uptake of 177Lu-DTPA-DG. After radiotherapy with 177Lu-DTPA-DG, tumor growth decreased, and the overall survival was longer than that in the 177LuCl3 group (268.58 ± 17.96 mm3 vs. 507.43 ± 55.72 mm3, p = 0.002) and the normal saline group (268.58 ± 17.96 mm3 vs. 483.68 ± 27.51 mm3, p < 0.05). Conclusions: This preliminary study suggests that 177Lu-DTPA-DG has the potential to become a liver radiopharmaceutical agent and should be further investigated.

Gallium-68-Labelled Indocyanine Green as a Potential Liver Reserve Imaging Agent.

Objective: This work evaluated the potential of 68Ga-labelledNOTA-ICG (1,4,7-triazacyclononane-1,4,7-triacetic acid indocyanine green) for liver reserve imaging. Methods: To determine the optimal conditions for generating 68Ga-NOTA-ICG, various reaction parameters were implemented. Quality control analysis was performed using different chromatography techniques. The in vitro and in vivo stability was also measured at specific time points. The radioactivity ratio between n-octanol and water was determined to evaluate the water solubility of 68Ga-NOTA-ICG. The plasma-protein binding rate of the labelled compound was determined by the methanol method. The biodistribution and imaging findings were evaluated in normal animals at different time points after injection. A preliminary imaging evaluation was performed using an animal model of hepatic ischaemia-reperfusion injury, which was confirmed by pathology. Results: 68Ga-NOTA-ICG was prepared with very high radiochemical purity (>98%) by reacting at 90°C for 10 min at pH = 3.5∼4.0, with excellent stability in vivo and in vitro (>95% 3 h postpreparation). The in vitro plasma-protein binding rate of 68Ga-NOTA-ICG was 13.01 ± 0.7%, and it showed strong water solubility (log P=-2.01 ± 0.04). We found that in addition to excretion through the biliary tract and intestines, 68Ga-NOTA-ICG can be excreted through the urinary tract. The image quality of 68Ga-NOTA-ICG was very high; imaging agent retained in the area of liver injury could clearly be observed. Conclusion: This is the first report on a 68Ga-labelled NOTA-ICG fragment for liver reserve function studies. This complex has promise as a candidate agent for liver reserve imaging.

Osteoarticular tuberculosis in children. A fast reappearing disease diagnosed by 18F-FDG PET/CT and other modalities. The cover page of Nicholas Andry booklet L' Orthopedie.

Osteoarticular tuberculosis (OAT) is not uncommon in children. Early diagnosis and treatment are essential to avoid ultimately long-term disabilities. Nicolas Andry (1658-1742) gave for the first time the name of the specialty of Orthopedics (L'Orthopedie) and its symbol of the crooked tree, in a paper in which he suggested how to avoid and to treat rachitis in children. We review the correlative-imaging findings and provide insights regarding the strengths and limitations of the conventional imaging modalities and those of nuclear medicine for the diagnosis of OAT and its differential diagnosis from other diseases.

Elevated 18F-NaF uptake in cricoid cartilage in a patient with laryngeal carcinoma: A case report and literature review.

RATIONALE: Laryngeal cancer is aggressive tumor that arises from the tissues of the larynx. Although any bone can be affected, involvement of cricoid cartilage was reported very rarely, and there has been no report of 18F-sodium fluoride positron emission tomography-computed tomography (F-NaF PET-CT) and 3D PET-CT for the evaluation of cricoid cartilage invasion. PATIENT CONCERNS: A 54-year-old male discovered a protruding mass in the right anterior neck, which had rapidly increased in size over a period of 2 months. Subsequently, hoarseness, dysphagia, and dyspnea were gradually developed. DIAGNOSES: F-FDG PET-CT demonstrated that the abnormal activity was located in a soft tissue mass, which was about 4.2 cm × 3.8 cm × 3.6 cm in largest dimension in the laryngeal cavity of supraglottic portion (SUVmax: 23.6). A swollen lymph node was revealed in the right submandibular region, which had intense FDG activity with a SUVmax of 18.4. However, there is a high uptake of F-FDG in the region near the bone, which is uncertain whether there is any skeletal invasion. NaF PET-CT and 3D PET-CT demonstrated increased uptake in the right side of cricoid cartilage (SUVmax: 13.2). The histopathologic examination confirmed squamous cell carcinoma of larynx. INTERVENTIONS: The patient underwent tracheotomy and received anti-infective treatment to relieve symptoms of dyspnea and prevent asphyxia. OUTCOMES: Clinical follow up of the patient revealed that dyspnea was significantly relieved. LESSONS: The case report shows the imaging features of cricoid cartilage invasion, including F-FDG PET/CT, 18F-sodium fluoride positron emission tomography-computed tomography (F-NaF PET-CT), and 3D PET-CT. Precise understanding of the invasion scope, accurately staging of laryngeal carcinoma, and choosing of the most suitable surgical scheme are the factors that lead to the optimal treatment of laryngeal neoplasms.