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Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected individuals may be at increased risk of age-associated noncommunicable comorbidities (AANCCs). Cross-sectional analyses of AANCC prevalence (including cardiovascular, metabolic, pulmonary, renal, bone, and malignant disease) and risk factors in a prospective cohort study of HIV type 1-infected individuals and HIV-uninfected controls, who were aged ≥45 years and comparable regarding most lifestyle and demographic factors. HIV-infected participants (n = 540) had a significantly higher mean number of AANCCs than controls (n = 524) (1.3 [SD, 1.14] vs 1.0 [SD, 0.95]; P < .001), with significantly more HIV-infected participants having ≥1 AANCC (69.4% vs 61.8%; P = .009). Hypertension, myocardial infarction, peripheral arterial disease, and impaired renal function were significantly more prevalent among HIV-infected participants. Risk of AANCC by ordinal logistic regression was independently associated with age, smoking, positive family history for cardiovascular/metabolic disease, and higher waist-to-hip ratio, but also with HIV infection (odds ratio, 1.58 [95% confidence interval, 1.23-2.03]; P < .001). In those with HIV, longer exposure to CD4 counts

Patients with increased inflammatory parameters, nonspecific signs and symptoms without fever and without a diagnosis after a variety of diagnostic procedures are a diagnostic dilemma and are referred to as having inflammation of unknown origin (IUO). The objective of this pilot study was to compare the cost-effectiveness of a diagnostic work-up/strategy with and without (18)F-FDG PET/CT in patients with IUO using a published dataset as a reference. IUO patients without (18)F-FDG PET/CT (group A, 46 patients) and IUO patients referred for (18)F-FDG PET/CT (group B, 46 patients) were selected. IUO was defined as the combination of nonspecific signs and symptoms and a prolonged erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), defined as ≥age/2 in men and ≥(age + 10)/2 in women (ESR in millimetres per hour and age in years), and/or C-reactive protein (CRP) ≥15 mg/l. The costs of all tests and procedures and the number of hospitalization days in each patient to reach a diagnosis were calculated using current Dutch tariffs. In group A a diagnosis was reached in 14 of the 46 patients. The mean cost per patient of all the diagnostic procedures was 2,051, and including the cost of hospitalization was 12,614. In group B a diagnosis was reached in 32 of the 46 patients. The mean cost per patient of all the diagnostic procedures was 1,821, significantly lower than in group A (p 5,298. In IUO (18)F-FDG PET/CT has the potential to become a cost-effective routine imaging technique indicating the direction for further diagnostic decisions thereby allowing unnecessary, invasive and expensive diagnostic investigations to be avoided and possibly the duration of hospitalization to be reduced. However, a prospective multicentre "bottom-up microcosting" cost-effectiveness study is warranted before these preliminary data can be extrapolated to clinical practice

The European procedural guidelines for radionuclide imaging of myocardial perfusion and viability are presented in 13 sections covering patient information, radiopharmaceuticals, injected activities and dosimetry, stress tests, imaging protocols and acquisition, quality control and reconstruction methods, gated studies and attenuation-scatter compensation, data analysis, reports and image display, and positron emission tomography. If the specific recommendations given could not be based on evidence from original, scientific studies, we tried to express this state-of-art. The guidelines are designed to assist in the practice of performing, interpreting and reporting myocardial perfusion SPET. The guidelines do not discuss clinical indications, benefits or drawbacks of radionuclide myocardial imaging compared to non-nuclear techniques, nor do they cover cost benefit or cost effectiveness.

Patients with clinical suspicion of large-vessel vasculitis (LVV) may present with nonspecific signs and symptoms and increased inflammatory parameters and may remain without diagnosis after routine diagnostic procedures. Both the nonspecificity of the radiopharmaceutical 18F-FDG and the synergy of integrating functional and anatomical images with PET/CT offer substantial benefit in the diagnostic work-up of patients with clinical suspicion for LVV. A negative temporal artery biopsy, an ultrasonography without an arterial halo, or a MRI without aortic wall thickening or oedema do not exclude the presence of LVV and should therefore not exclude the use of 18F-FDG PET/CT when LVV is clinically suspected. This overview further discusses the notion that there is substantial underdiagnosis of LVV. Late diagnosis of LVV may lead to surgery or angioplasty in occlusive forms and is often accompanied by serious aortic complications and a fatal outcome. In contrast to the American College of Rheumatology 1990 criteria for vasculitis, based on late LVV effects like arterial stenosis and/or occlusion, 18F-FDG PET/CT sheds new light on the classification of giant cell arteritis (GCA) and Takayasu arteritis (TA). The combination of these observations makes the role of 18F-FDG PET/CT in the assessment of patients suspected for having LVV promising.

With growing interest in cell-based scintigraphic diagnosis or therapy monitoring, there is an increasing demand for non-invasive observation and quantification of cell trafficking in the preclinical and clinical setting. Monocytes are members of the human mononuclear phagocyte system originating from a myeloid precursor in the bone. Labeled monocytes are being used for investigation of pathogenesis like atherosclerosis and for monitoring of therapeutic intervention in inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. Labeling mononuclear cells at high specific activity without affecting their biological functions allows (delayed) non-invasive imaging with g or PET cameras. Monocytes labeled before their final differentiation into macrophages or dendritic cells may reveal centers of inflammation in a patient and, thereby, contribute to scintigraphic diagnosis. Macrophages or dendritic cells may be in vitro cultured and by means of genetic transformation specified towards specific targets prior to re-injection, an approach with therapeutic potency. This review addresses issues on autologous monocytes, particularly their properties and labeling for non-invasive in vivo radionuclide imaging of chronic inflammation