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Objective. To evaluate 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (18FDG PET) and clinical parameters to differentiate rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and polymyalgia rheumatic (PMR). Patients and Methods. This retrospective study evaluated 54 patients with suspected RA (n = 23) and PMR (n = 31) who underwent 18F-FDG PET/CT before treatment. The complete diagnosis was based on each classification criterion and at least followed up for 6 months. Demographic and clinical data were also collected. Semiquantitative analysis (maximum standardized uptake value, SUVmax) of abnormal 18F-FDG uptake was undertaken at 17 musculoskeletal sites, and two scoring systems (mean reference (liver/control) scores) were evaluated. The differential diagnostic efficacy of each independent parameter was evaluated using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Integrated discriminatory improvement (IDI) and bootstrap tests were used to evaluate the improvement in diagnostic efficacy using a combination of multiple parameters. Results. The ROC curve analysis of SUVmax indicated that the interspinous ligament showed the highest discriminative diagnostic value (sensitivity, 64.5%; specificity, 78.3%; area under the curve (AUC), 0.764; positive predictive value, 0.800; negative predictive value, 0.621). The combined model with the rheumatoid factor (RF) and metabolic parameters of 18F-FDG PET resulted in the highest AUC of 0.892 and showed significant reclassification by IDI (IDI, 9.51%; 95% confidence interval: 0.021–0.175; P = 0.013). According to the bootstrap test, compared with RF alone, the combination of RF and metabolic parameters showed an improvement in ROC and was statistically significant (P = 0.017). Conclusions. The combination of 18F-FDG PET metabolic and clinical parameters can further improve the differential diagnosis of RA and PMR.

Purpose To assess the efficiency of [68Ga]GaDOTAFAPI04 in diagnosing periprosthetic hip joint infection and establish a diagnostic standard of clinical significance based on uptake pattern. Methods [68Ga]GaDOTAFAPI04 PET/CT was performed in patients with symptomatic hip arthroplasty from December 2019 to July 2022. The reference standard was based on the 2018 Evidence-Based and Validation Criteria. Two diagnostic criteria, SUVmax and uptake pattern, were used to diagnose PJI. Meanwhile, original data were imported into IKT-snap to draw the view of interest, A.K. was used to extract features of clinical cases, and unsupervised clustering analysis was applied according to the groups. Results A total of 103 patients were included, 28 of whom had PJI. The area under the curve of SUVmax was 0.8969, which was better than that of all of the serological tests. The cutoff value of SUVmax was 7.530, and the sensitivity and specificity were 72% and 100%, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of the uptake pattern were 100%, 93.10% and 95%, respectively. In radiomics analysis, the features of PJI were significantly different from aseptic failure. Conclusion The efficiency of [68Ga]GaDOTAFAPI04 PET/CT in diagnosing PJI showed promising results, and the diagnostic criteria of the uptake pattern were more clinically instructive. Radiomics also showed a certain application prospect in the field of PJI. Trial registration number Trial registration: ChiCTR2000041204. Registered 24 September 2019.

Purpose Parametric imaging using the Patlak model has been shown to provide improved lesion detectability and specificity. The Patlak model requires both tissue time-activity curves (TACs) after equilibrium and knowledge of the input function from the start of injection. Therefore, the conventional dynamic scanning protocol typically starts from the radiotracer injection all the way to equilibrium. In this paper, we propose the use of hybrid population-based and model-based input function estimation and evaluate its use for whole-body Patlak analysis, in order to reduce the total scan time and simplify clinical Patlak parametric imaging protocols. Possible quantitative errors caused by the simplified scanning protocol were also analyzed both theoretically and with the use of clinical data. Materials and methods Clinical data from 24 patients referred for tumor staging were included in this study. The patients underwent a whole-body dynamic PET study, 20 min after FDG injection (0.13 mCi/kg). The proposed whole-body scanning protocol includes 6 passes with 4-5 bed positions, depending on the size of the patient, with 2 min for each bed position. An input function from the literature was selected as the shape of the population-based input function. The descending aorta from the corresponding CT image was segmented and applied on the reconstructed dynamic PET images to acquire an image-based input function, which was later fitted using an exponential model. Due to the late scan time, only the later portion of the input function was available, which was used to scale the population-based input function. The hybrid input function was used to derive the whole-body Patlak images. Assuming a given error in the population-based input function, its influence on the final Patlak images were also derived theoretically and verified using the clinical data sets. Finally, the image quality of the reconstructed Patlak slope image was evaluated by an experienced radiologist in four different aspects: image artifacts, image noise, lesion sharpness, and lesion detectability. Results It was found that errors in the population-based input function only affect the absolute scale of the Patlak slope image. The induced error is proportional to the percentage area-under-curve (AUC) error in the input function. These findings were also confirmed by numerical analysis. The predicted global scale was in good agreement with results from both image-based Patlak and direct Patlak approach. The fractions of the AUC from the early portion population-based input function were also found to be around 18% of the total AUC of the input function, further limiting the propagation of quantitation error from population-based input function to the final Patlak slope image. The reconstructed Patlak images were also found by the radiologist to provide excellent confidence in lesion detection tasks. Conclusions We have proposed a simplified whole-body scanning protocol that utilizes both population-based input function and model-based input function. The error from the population-based function was found to only affect the global scale and the overall quantitative impact can be predicted using our proposed formulas.

Purpose This retrospective study aimed to analyzed the F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose PET/computed tomography (F-18 FDG PET/CT) features of pulmonary sclerosing pneumocytoma (PSP) to improve the understanding and preoperative diagnostic efficacy of this rare disorder. Methods FDG PET/CT images from 11 patients with 22 lesions (including one patient with 12 lesions) proven PSP in our hospital were reviewed. We summarized the PET/CT features of PSP and analyzed the correlation between FDG uptake and tumor size. Results PET/CT imaging revealed all tumors located in each lobe of the two lungs randomly. All 22 tumors were round or oval nodules; 15 had smooth margins, six were lobulated, six were calcified, and one had a ground-glass halo sign. The mean diameter of these tumors was 19.2 ± 7.8 mm (range: 8-34 mm); the mean maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) was 2.8 ± 1.3 (range: 1.1-7.4). Sixteen of the lesions exhibited mild to moderate FDG uptake (mean SUVmax 2.3 ± 0.6), and six of the lesions exhibited intense FDG uptake (mean SUVmax 4.3 ± 1.6). A positive correlation was observed between FDG uptake and tumor size (P Conclusion Single round or ovoid soft-tissue lesions with smooth margins, and mild to moderate FDG uptake on PET/CT images in middle-aged females, suggest a possible diagnosis of PSP. For some atypical cases with intense FDG uptake, a diagnosis of PSP also can be considered. A statistically significant positive correlation was found between SUVmax and PSP lesion size in our study.

The existing periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) models have obvious limitations, and studies of PJI on animal models using PET/computed tomography (CT) for diagnosis are still lacking. Thus, the aim of this study was to establish a new PJI model and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) and 68Ga-fibroblast activation protein inhibitor (FAPI) were employed to study their performance.A novel PJI model of rabbit was developed by placing two screws in the tibia and femur. Based on bacteria concentration, the animals were divided into five groups, control, 104, 105, 106 and 107. 18F-FDG and 68Ga-FAPI PET/CT were performed continuously in next 2 weeks and maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax), mean standardized uptake value (SUVmean), metabolic target volume (MTV) and total lesion glycolysis/total lesion fibrosis were calculated as the metrics.As for SUVmax, all data of 18F-FDG were larger than that of 68Ga-FAPI in the same group for both weeks. For the performance of 18F-FDG, no definitive conclusion could be drawn for SUVmax and SUVmean. As for 68Ga-FAPI, the 104 group was significantly larger than 105, 106 and 107 groups for SUVmax and SUVmean in both weeks (P 0.05). MTV of 68Ga-FAPI was found to be almost always larger than that of 18F-FDG in the same group.The mechanism of 68Ga-FAPI is totally different from 18F-FDG and this unique property of 68Ga-FAPI shows a promising prospect in detecting infection boundary and may even distinguish a small number or a large number of bacterial infections.

Conventional positron emission tomography (PET) image reconstruction is achieved by the statistical iterative method. Deep learning provides another opportunity for speeding up the image reconstruction process. However, conventional deep learning-based image reconstruction requires a fully connected network for learning the Radon transform. The use of fully connected networks greatly complicated the network and increased hardware cost. In this study, we proposed a novel deep learning-based image reconstruction method by utilizing the DIRECT data partitioning method. The U-net structure with only convolutional layers was used in our approach. Patch-based model training and testing were used to achieve 3D reconstructions within current hardware limitations. Time-of-flight (TOF)-histoimages were first generated from the listmode data to replace conventional sinograms. Different projection angles were used as different channels in the input. A total of 15 patient data were used in this study. For each patient, the dynamic whole-body scanning protocol was used to expand the training dataset and a total of 372 separate scans were included. The leave-one-patient-out validation method was used. Two separate studies were carried out. In the first study, the measured TOF-histoimages were directly used for model training and testing, to study the performance of the method in real-world applications. In the second study, TOF-histoimages were simulated from already reconstructed images to exclude the scatters, randoms, attenuation-activity mismatch effects. This study was used to evaluate the optimal performance when all other corrections are ideal. Volumes of interests were placed in the liver and lesion region to study image noise and lesion quantitations. The reconstructed images using the proposed deep learning method showed similar image quality when compared with the conventional expectation-maximization approach. A minimal difference was observed when the simulated TOF-histoimages were used as model input and testing, suggesting the deep learning model can indeed learn the reconstruction process. Some quantitative difference was observed when the measured TOF-histoimages were used. The two studies suggested that the major difference is caused by inaccurate corrections performed by the network itself, which indicated that physics-based corrections are still required for better quantitative performance. In conclusion, we have proposed a novel deep learning-based image reconstruction method for TOF PET. With the help of the DIRECT data partitioning method, no fully connected layers were used and 3D image reconstruction can be directly achieved within the limits of the current hardware.

The prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is considered to be an excellent theranostic target of prostate cancer (PCa). In this study, three 18F-labeled PSMA tracers with a more lipophilic quinoline functional spacer were designed, synthesized, and evaluated based on the Glu-Ureido-Lys binding motif. The effect of structure-related lipophilic difference on distribution and excretion of these tracers in vitro and in vivo (cells, rodent, primate, and human) was investigated by comparing with [18F]DCFPyL. There is no significant correlation between the renal elimination and the lipophilicity of the tracers in all species. However, the higher the lipophilicity of tracer, the higher the radioactivity accumulation in the liver of primate and human, and the less radioactivity is to excrete to the bladder with urine. The screened tracer [18F]8c, with a Ki value of 4.58 nM, displayed notable low bladder retention and demonstrated good imaging properties in patients with PCa.

Purpose. To evaluate multiparametric analysis in differential diagnosis between pancreatic serous cystic neoplasms (SCNs) and mucinous cystic neoplasms (MCNs) as well as the differentiation of the benign and malignant MCNs with 18F-FDG (18-fluorodeoxyglucose) PET/CT (positron emission tomography). Methods. Forty patients with total of 41 lesions (SCNs: 27/41; MCNs: 14/41), who were preoperatively examined with 18F-FDG PET/CT, were retrospectively analyzed. Multiple quantitative parameters using conventional and texture features were included. The combined model was established with complementary PET/MR parameters. The differential diagnostic efficacy of each independent parameter and the combined model were evaluated with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Integrated discriminatory improvement (IDI) and net reclassification improvement (NRI) were used to evaluate improvement of diagnostic efficacy by using combination of multiple parameters. Results. Among all independent parameters, the percentile 5th (0.88 ± 0.38 vs 0.47 ± 0.23, P < 0.001 ) showed the highest discriminative diagnostic value. The combination of multiple parameters can improve the differential diagnostic efficacy of SCNs and MCNs (sensitivity = 71.4%, specificity = 77.8%, and AUC = 0.788), and the addition of texture parameters to the conventional parameters allowed a significant reclassification with IDI = 0.236 (95% CI: 0.095–0.377) and categorical NRI = 0.434 (95% CI: 0.030–0.838). SURmax (tumor to normal pancreas ratio, T/P) and SURmax (tumor to aorta ratio, T/A) both showed the highest discriminative diagnostic value (sensitivity = 100.0%, specificity = 70.0%, AUC = 0.900, and Youden index = 0.700) in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant MCNs, with the cutoff values of 0.84 and 0.90, respectively. Conclusion.Combination of multiple parameters using 18F-FDG PET/CT could further improve differentiation between pancreatic SCNs and MCNs. SURmax (T/P) and SURmax (T/A) could improve differential diagnosis of benign and malignant MCNs.

Parametric imaging using the Patlak model has been shown to provide improved lesion detectability and specificity. The Patlak model requires both tissue time-activity curves (TACs) after equilibrium and knowledge of the input function from the start of injection. Therefore, the conventional dynamic scanning protocol typically starts from the radiotracer injection all the way to equilibrium. In this paper, we propose the use of hybrid population-based and model-based input function estimation and evaluate its use for whole-body Patlak analysis, in order to reduce the total scan time and simplify clinical Patlak parametric imaging protocols. Possible quantitative errors caused by the simplified scanning protocol were also analyzed both theoretically and with the use of clinical data.Clinical data from 24 patients referred for tumor staging were included in this study. The patients underwent a whole-body dynamic PET study, 20 min after FDG injection (0.13 mCi/kg). The proposed whole-body scanning protocol includes 6 passes with 4-5 bed positions, depending on the size of the patient, with 2 min for each bed position. An input function from the literature was selected as the shape of the population-based input function. The descending aorta from the corresponding CT image was segmented and applied on the reconstructed dynamic PET images to acquire an image-based input function, which was later fitted using an exponential model. Due to the late scan time, only the later portion of the input function was available, which was used to scale the population-based input function. The hybrid input function was used to derive the whole-body Patlak images. Assuming a given error in the population-based input function, its influence on the final Patlak images were also derived theoretically and verified using the clinical data sets. Finally, the image quality of the reconstructed Patlak slope image was evaluated by an experienced radiologist in four different aspects: image artifacts, image noise, lesion sharpness, and lesion detectability.It was found that errors in the population-based input function only affect the absolute scale of the Patlak slope image. The induced error is proportional to the percentage area-under-curve (AUC) error in the input function. These findings were also confirmed by numerical analysis. The predicted global scale was in good agreement with results from both image-based Patlak and direct Patlak approach. The fractions of the AUC from the early portion population-based input function were also found to be around 18% of the total AUC of the input function, further limiting the propagation of quantitation error from population-based input function to the final Patlak slope image. The reconstructed Patlak images were also found by the radiologist to provide excellent confidence in lesion detection tasks.We have proposed a simplified whole-body scanning protocol that utilizes both population-based input function and model-based input function. The error from the population-based function was found to only affect the global scale and the overall quantitative impact can be predicted using our proposed formulas.

In dynamic PET, direct parametric reconstruction is advantageous over conventional kinetic modeling method in noise reduction. Direct reconstruction with accurate input function has been investigated. However, clinical application of dynamic PET is limited by technical complication in measuring the input function from patient blood samples. Population-based input function (PBIF) is an alternative approach and has been demonstrated to be feasible in regions of interest (ROI) -based kinetic analysis. The objective of this work is to investigate the performance of direct 4D Patlak reconstruction in dynamic FDG PET imaging with PBIF.A direct 4D Patlak reconstruction strategy with PBIF was proposed. A nested technique was used to accelerate the convergence. Dynamic images and unscaled parametric images were generated from direct Patlak reconstruction with unscaled PBIF. The scaling factors estimated from dynamic images were used after the direct reconstruction due to the linear relationship between dynamic images and kinetic parameters. Phantom simulation, preclinical scans and ongoing clinical scans were performed to compare the indirect and direct reconstruction with PBIF. The Ki images generated from direct analysis were less noisy than those generated from indirect analysis. In phantom studies, the directly reconstructed images at convergence shows less noise and comparable bias. For both simulated and experimental data, similar scaled input functions were obtained in the indirect and direct analysis with PBIF. With shorter acquisition time, more iterations are required to reach convergence, while the advantage of direct reconstruction is more remarkable.Our proposed direct reconstruction strategy with PBIF was demonstrated to be feasible. Compared with Ki images generated from indirect analysis, directly reconstructed Ki images showed better performance in terms of less variation and comparable bias.

Using a fermentation broth produced by Bacillus amyloliquefaciens ES-2 as a raw material, a preparation method for antimicrobial lipopeptide powders was developed. Antimicrobial lipopeptide microcapsules were obtained by a spray-drying process using maltodextrin and porous starch as composite wall materials. Optimal encapsulation conditions comprised a ratio of wall materials to the core material of 5%, a ratio of porous starch to maltodextrin of 1/9, a drying air flow of 70 m 3 /h and an inlet gas temperature of 220 °C, producing a high yield of microcapsules of 63.9 ± 0.5%. The lipopeptides retained their desired bioactivity and had a spherical form after spray drying, with an antimicrobial potency of 25711.3 ± 34.5 IU/g evaluated by the cylinder-plate method, and their preservation percent was about 81.5%. Because of its low cost, high efficiency, simplicity and easy of scale-up, the technology is expected to be efficient for producing antimicrobial lipopeptide powders and to be helpful in the application of antimicrobial lipopeptides as food additives.

The purpose of this study is to find new molecular targets for the detection of Salmonella. With the online BLAST Program, we compared homology of genomic sequences and specificity in GenBank among Salmonella serovars and non-Salmonella strains and found 98 Salmonella specific target sequences. We selected 33 target sequences of Gene ID from 3335000 to 3337003 for the specificity evaluation, and finally 8 specific fragments screened out, they are 3334138, 3335583, 3335471, 3335211, 3335068, 3336466, 3336736 and 3336998. Primer SC8 of gene 3335583 and SC9 of gene 3335471 were the best in specificity and sensitivity among these primers. The detection sensitivity of Primer SC9 was 1.23 fg/μl for DNA templates and 720 cfu/ml for whole cells, while primer SC8's was 12.3 fg/μl and 720 cfu/ml, respectively. Salmonella could be detected successfully by the PCR method developed in this study after 8 h enrichment when the milk samples were artificially contaminated by this organism at 7 cfu per 10 ml milk.

We proposed a novel idea to introduce information theoretic priors between PET and MR images to PET/MR joint reconstruction framework. To evaluate the performance of the proposed method, information theoretic priors: mutual information (MI) and joint entropy (JE) were compared with structural similarity priors: parallel level set (PLS) and joint total variation (JTV). With MI and JE, PET/MR joint reconstruction substantially improved resolution and accuracy of both PET and MR images with both simulation and real human data compared with no prior, PLS and JTV priors.

We aimed to investigate the contribution of the platelet-derived microRNAs on the variability of platelet reactivity in healthy and clopidogrel antiplatelet responsiveness in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Consecutive hospitalized ACS patients with the measurement of clopidogrel on

BACKGROUND AND AIM Researchers find that monitoring the differentiation of implanted cells in vivo is difficult. This study was designed to show that it is possible to track the efficacy of transplanted human retinal pigment epithelial cells (RPE cells) in a rat model of Parkinson's disease by using positron emission tomography (PET). METHODS RPE cells or normal saline were injected into striatum of the injured side of the rat model in treated and control groups, respectively. PET imaging of both groups was undertaken before transplantation and at intervals afterwards, using C-raclopride and C-beta-CFT as the markers. Observation of the rats' behaviour and immunofluorescence confocal microscopy were also used to prove the PET results. RESULTS PET studies showed increased accumulation of C-raclopride and decreased C-beta-CFT in the injured side of striatum in both groups. C-raclopride decreased along with a concomitant increase of C-beta-CFT after transplantation in the treated group. The changes shown by the PET studies paralleled the behavioural states and confocal microscopy observations in the treated animals. CONCLUSION These results suggest that even a clinical PET scanner could, to a certain extent, provide some information on the existence and in-vivo differentiation of RPE cells in a rat model of Parkinson's disease.

A novel silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) has been developed with both a standard and a fast output, aiming at providing good energy and timing performance simultaneously for time of flight (TOF) PET application. Optimal readout method of this SiPM is investigated in this study. The standard output can be taken from either anode terminal or cathode terminal and different dual readout mode has different impact on timing resolution of fast output. Three dual mode readout methods were evaluated and we found the optimized way was to readout the standard output on the cathode side with a small capacitance in parallel. This readout method can preserve good timing performance using relatively few electronic components. We developed a detector module by directly coupling a 16×16 LYSO crystal block to an 8×8 Sensl FC30035 SiPM array. Through multiplexing and summing scheme and charge division resistor network, 64 channels of fast output and 64 channels of standard output are reduced to one fast timing signal and four energy signals, making the detector highly compact and scalable. The performance of the detector module was evaluated. 16×16 LYSO crystals were well resolved in the flood image and the average energy resolution were 12.4% ± 0.8% at 511 KeV. The average coincidence resolving timing (CRT) of the block against a single LYSO crystal coupled to a FC30035 pixel were 286 ± 13 ps. The average block-to-block CRT were estimated to be 311 ps. The proposed dual readout design has demonstrated excellent timing performance for TOF PET detectors.

Bacillus amyloliquefaciens fmb50 produces a high yield of surfactin, a lipopeptide-type biosurfactant that has been widely studied and has potential applications in many fields. A foam overflowing culture has been successfully used in the combined production-enrichment fermentation of surfactin. In this study, the agitation and aeration rates were found to have relationships with foam formation and surfactin enrichment. A maximum surfactin concentration of 4.7g/l of foam was obtained after 21h of culture with an agitation rate of 150rpm and an aeration rate of 1vvm in fed-batch culture. By controlling the foam overflow rate (fout) of a fed-batch culture, surfactin concentration in the foam was continuously maintained above 4g/l.

Umbilicaria esculenta as a traditional food is known to have many pharmacological activities, such as cholesterol synthesis inhibition, anti-inflammation and anti-tumor. The antithrombotic activities of UEP isolated from the lichen were examined in vitro and in vivo for the first time. The in vitro anticoagulant activity of UEP was tested by its PT, APTT and TT. The more prolongation of APTT suggested a more obvious inhibition of the intrinsic coagulation systems than the extrinsic. Its antithrombotic properties were evaluated using an arteriovenous shunt thrombosis model in rats, and its inhibition of thrombus formation increased in a dose-dependent manner. It also caused a dose-dependent increase in tail transection bleeding time. Oral administration of UEP also showed a significant dose dependent preventive effect against thrombotic death or paralysis. UEP has a potent antithrombotic effect in vitro and in vivo, which may be used as a novel, effective and promising antithrombotic agent.

The current paper presents a theoretical analysis of Ni-63 nuclear micro-battery based on a wide-band gap semiconductor GaN thin-film covered with thin Ni/Au films to form Schottky barrier for carrier separation. The total energy deposition in GaN was calculated using Monte Carlo methods by taking into account the full beta spectral energy, which provided an optimal design on Schottky barrier width. The calculated results show that an 8 μm thick Schottky barrier can collect about 95% of the incident beta particle energy. Considering the actual limitations of current GaN growth technique, a Fe-doped compensation technique by MOCVD method can be used to realize the n-type GaN with a carrier concentration of 1×10(15) cm(-3), by which a GaN based Schottky betavoltaic micro-battery can achieve an energy conversion efficiency of 2.25% based on the theoretical calculations of semiconductor device physics.

In this paper, we present the design and simulation of a p-n junction betavoltaic battery based on large-grain polysilicon. By the Monte Carlo simulation, the average penetration depth were obtained, according to which the optimal depletion region width was designed. The carriers transport model of large-grain polysilicon is used to determine the diffusion length of minority carrier. By optimizing the doping concentration, the maximum power conversion efficiency can be achieved to be 0.90% with a 10 mCi/cm(2) Ni-63 source radiation.

This paper presents the energy conversion theory of radioisotope battery and analyzes the effects of a three-dimensional (3-D) silicon p-n diode with cylindrical hole array on the electrical-output parameters. An equivalent circuit model for direct radioisotope-energy conversion battery has been established. We derive the mathematical equations of short-circuit current, open-circuit voltage and maximum output power of silicon radioisotope battery in the case that a plane solid radioactive source is put on the surface of 3-D silicon p-n diode with cylindrical hole array structure. The simulated results show that for a 3-D silicon p-n diode with cylindrical hole array, the short-circuit current rise but open-circuit voltage decrease with the hole radius increasing. Therefore, the maximum output power is not significantly improved in comparison with the 2-D plane p-n diode without cylindrical hole array.

Dual-tracer, (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose and (18)F-fluorodeoxythymidine ((18)F-FDG/(18)F-FLT), dual-modality (positron emission tomography and computed tomography, PET/CT) imaging was used in a clinical trial on differentiation of pulmonary nodules. The aims of this trial were to investigate if multimodality imaging is of advantage and to what extent it could benefit the patients in real clinical settings.Seventy-three subjects in whom it was difficult to establish the diagnosis and determine management of their pulmonary lesions were prospectively enrolled in this clinical trial. All subjects underwent (18)F-FDG and (18)F-FLT PET/CT imaging sequentially. The images were interpreted with different strategies as either individual or combined modalities. The pathological or clinical evidence during a follow-up period of more than 22 months served as the standard of truth. The diagnostic performance of each interpretation and their impact on clinical decision making was investigated.(18)F-FLT/(18)F-FDG PET/CT was proven to be of clinical value in improving the diagnostic confidence in 28 lung tumours, 18 tuberculoses and 27 other benign lesions. The ratio between maximum standardized uptake values of (18)F-FLT and (18)F-FDG was found to be of great potential in separating the three subgroups of patients. The advantage could only be obtained with the full use of the multimodality interpretation. Multimodality imaging induced substantial change in clinical management in 31.5% of the study subjects and partial change in another 12.3%.Multimodality imaging using (18)F-FDG/(18)F-FLT PET/CT provided the best diagnostic efficacy and the opportunity for better management in this group of clinically challenging patients with pulmonary lesions.

The value of vesicant 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (18F-FDG PET) in the detection and staging of primary gastric malignancies was studied prospectively.Thirty-eight patients with suspected gastric tumour were imaged with three-dimensional PET after the injection of 18F-FDG. During the PET study, vesicant was given orally in order to extend the stomach with CO(2) gas. Surgical operation (n=31) or gastric endoscopy with biopsy (n=7) was undertaken 3-26 days after the PET study. The PET results were compared with clinical (computed tomography/magnetic resonance imaging/ultrasound), surgical and histological staging.PET correctly diagnosed 83.3% of primary malignant (25/30) and benign (7/8) lesions, and corrected 11 clinically and five surgically mis-staged cases. Five primaries were false-negatives in quantitative analysis, but qualitative PET readings revealed positive lymph nodes, thereby providing a correct diagnosis in two of the five. PET misdiagnosed seven N1, one N2 and one false-positive case. The focal uptake of 18F-FDG was correlated with the differentiation, size and depth of invasion of the gastric tumours.18F-FDG PET is useful for the detection and staging of primary gastric malignancies, and the administration of vesicant may improve the diagnostic confidence.

To explore the experimental method of obtaining position emission tonogiaphy (PET) imaging evidence of changes in cerebral function by puncturing the Stomach 36 (ST36, Zusanli) acupoint.Data on changes of cerebral glycometabolism were obtained from six healthy male volunteers with positron emission tomography. Visual experimental evidence, as well as statistical parametric mapping (SPM), was gathered while puncturing the ST36 (Zusanli, right leg) acupoint.There was increased glycometabolism in the hypothalamus, head of the caudate nucleus, temporal lobe, the sinistral cerebellum, postcentral gyrus, and brain stem while the acupoint ST36 was being punctured.Acupuncture on ST36 can lead to increase in glycometabolism in the vegetative nerve centers, which is correlated with gastric function. Visual experimental evidence of ST36 acupuncturing on functional gastrointestinal disorder was obtained in our study.

To assess the relationship between histological type and fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose(FDG) uptake in patients with primary lung cancer and the factors affecting FDG uptake.From October 1998 to April 2001, 82 patients with lung cancer were imaged with FDG-PET (Positron emission tomography) before surgery or biopsy. Their maximum and mean standard uptake value(SUVmax and SUVmean) of tumor and SUV of normal lung (SUVlung) were measured.All tumors were detected by FDG-PET(r)FDG uptake of tumor was higher than that of normal lung (P0.01). FDG uptake was lower in adenocarcinoma(AC) than in squamous cell carcinoma (SQC), and that of bronchial aveolar carcinomas(BAC) was the lowest [SUVmax was 8.42 +/- 4.05,5.91 +/- 3.91 and 2.97 +/- 1.10, respectively; SUVmean was 6.12 +/- 2.90,4.35+/- 3.10 and 2.25 +/- 0.99, respectively (P0.01)]. Correlations were found between FDG uptake and tumor size (P0.01)(r)Glucose level and SUV of normal lung could affect SUV of lung cancer (P0.05).SUV is higher in cancer tissue than in normal lung tissue. FDG uptake is different among SQC,AC and BAC. FDG uptake and tumor size appear to be correlated with each other.SQC, AC and BAC have their own features respectively. The effects of glucose and SUV lung should be considered in the diagnosis of lung cancer with PET.