Annals of Nuclear Medicine最新文献

Purpose

We aimed to evaluate the feasibility of positron emission tomography feature tracking (PETFT) for assessing endocardial wall strain by comparing it with cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR)-derived feature tracking (CMRFT).

Methods

We enrolled 83 consecutive patients with coronary artery disease who underwent rest-pharmacologic stress ¹³N-ammonia PETMR (67 males, mean age 66 years). PETFT and CMRFT were obtained through simultaneous acquisition with electrocardiography-gated PET and cine-CMR. Global longitudinal and circumferential strain (GLS and GCS) were calculated. Correlations and Bland–Altman plots were employed to evaluate associations, bias, and 95% limit of agreement (LOA) between PETFT and CMRFT.

Results

PETFT and CMRFT showed significant correlations (R = 0.57 [95% CI 0.41–0.70], R = 0.71 [95% CI 0.58–0.80], R = 0.59 [95% CI 0.43–0.71], and R = 0.69 [95% CI 0.56–0.79] for rest GLS, rest GCS, stress GLS, and stress GCS, respectively; p < 0.001 for all). Bland–Altman plot showed good agreements, while a systematic error was observed (LOA -10.2–8.8, -8.7–10.7, -10.5–8.5, and -9.4–12.0; bias -0.7, 1.0, -1.0, and 1.3; for rest GLS, rest GCS, stress GLS, and stress GCS; respectively).

Conclusion

PETFT has been identified as a feasible technique compared to CMRFT, highlighting its potential as a novel tool for assessing wall strain in routine clinical settings.

The 13th World Federation of Nuclear Medicine and Biology congress (WFNMB 2022) was held in Kyoto and Kanazawa, Japan in September 2022, approximately half a century after the first World Congress of Nuclear Medicine held in Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan. In this paper, we describe the road to hosting another WFNMB congress in Japan, including the historic election for WFNMB 2022, the state of WFNMB 2022 in Kyoto, and the post-congress symposium in Kanazawa. This congress, themed “Summarize the past half century and discuss the next half century of WFNMB,” was successful and strongly encouraged doctors and researchers to develop future research and clinical practice in nuclear medicine.

Objectives

This study aimed to assess the performance of state-of-the-art multimodal large language models (LLMs), specifically GPT-4o, Claude 3 Opus, and Gemini 1.5 Pro, on Japanese Nuclear Medicine Board Examination (JNMBE) questions and to evaluate the influence of visual information on the decision-making process.

Methods

This study utilized 92 questions with images from the JNMBE (2019–2023). The LLMs’ responses were assessed under two conditions: providing both text and images and providing only text. Each model answered all questions thrice, and the most frequent answer choice was considered the final answer. The accuracy and agreement rates among the model answers were evaluated using statistical tests.

Results

GPT-4o, Claude 3 Opus, and Gemini 1.5 Pro exhibited no significant differences in terms of accuracy between the text-and-image and text-only conditions. GPT-4o and Claude 3 Opus demonstrated accuracies of 54.3% (95% CI: 44.2%–64.1%) each when provided with both text and images; however, they selected the same options as in the text-only condition for 71.7% of the questions. Gemini 1.5 Pro performed significantly worse than GPT-4o under text and image conditions. The agreement rates among the model answers ranged from weak to moderate.

Conclusion

The influence of images on decision-making in nuclear medicine is limited to the latest multimodal LLMs, and their diagnostic ability in this highly specialized field remains insufficient. Improving the utilization of image information and enhancing the answer reproducibility are crucial for the effective application of LLMs in nuclear medicine education and practice. Further advancements in these areas are necessary to harness the potential of LLMs as assistants in nuclear medicine diagnosis.

Objective

To evaluate the diagnostic performance of dual-time-point ¹⁸F-PSMA-11 PET/CT imaging at 30 and 60 min post-injection (p.i.) in treatment-naïve patients with prostate cancer (PCa).

Methods

Twenty treatment-naïve patients with histology-proven PCa who underwent ¹⁸F-PSMA-11 PET/CT scans at both 30 and 60-min p.i. were retrospectively analyzed. Lesion detection, semi-quantitative analysis of lesion and background, and unspecific bone uptake (UBU) between two time points were evaluated and compared. Besides, interrater reliability was also evaluated.

Results

Lesion detection was consistent at both 30 and 60-min p.i. imaging of 20 patients (mean age 72 ± 9), identifying 27 primary prostate lesions, 84 lymph node metastases, bone metastases in 8 patients, and other metastases in 2 patients. Primary prostate lesions showed no significant difference in SUVmax and target-to-blood pool (T/B) ratios between the two imaging times, while these parameters significantly increased over time in bone metastases. Lymph node metastases showed no significant difference in SUVmax but higher T/B ratios at 60 min compared to 30 min. A higher frequency of UBU was observed at 60 min (37.3%) compared to 30 min (32.3%), with significantly higher SUVmax and T/B ratios at 60 min. 85.6% UBU was categorized as PSMA-RADS 2 at 60 min, and the others were PSMA-RADS 3 or 4. The most frequent localization was vertebrae, followed by ribs. Interrater reliability was almost perfect for lesion detection at both time points.

Conclusion

Early 30-min ¹⁸F-PSMA-11 PET/CT imaging provided comparable PCa lesion detection and semi-quantitative analysis with reduced UBU to the standard 60-min imaging.

Objecive

To investigate temporal trends in the individual workload of nuclear medicine physicians at a large tertiary care academic center between 2008 and 2023.

Methods

This study analyzed the reporting workload of nuclear medicine physicians in a large tertiary care academic center in The Netherlands on 36 unique (randomly sampled) calendar days, for each year between 2008 and 2023. The average daily departmental workload (measured with relative value units) was calculated for each year between 2008 and 2023. The individual workload was calculated by dividing the average daily departmental workload in each year by the available full-time equivalent nuclear medicine physicians in each year. Mann–Kendall tests were used to assess for any temporal monotonic trends in individual workload and types of nuclear medicine procedures performed.

Results

Individual workload increased significantly between 2008 and 2023 (Mann–Kendall tau of 0.611, P = 0.001). Individual workload in 2023 was 86% higher than in 2008. The use of positron emission tomography (PET) increased significantly (Mann–Kendall tau of 0.912, P < 0.001) between 2008 and 2023. The use of diagnostic scintigraphy decreased significantly in the same period (Mann–Kendall tau of -0.817, P < 0.001). The use of DEXA also showed a significant decrease (Mann–Kendall tau of -0.467, P = 0.013), but this decrease was negligible on a relative scale. The number of therapeutic procedures (Mann–Kendall tau of -0.100, P = 0.626) remained statistically stable in this period.

Conclusions

Our single-center study showed that the individual workload of nuclear medicine physicians has increased significantly between 2008 and 2023, driven by the rise in PET scans. The demand for both diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicine procedures and associated workload is expected to keep on increasing in the foreseeable future. This workload trend should be taken into account by policymakers involved in nuclear medicine staffing planning. A healthy balance between the nuclear medicine workforce and workload is necessary to maintain the quality of care, to be able to perform other important (academic) tasks such as research, educating and training medical students and residents, and management, and to prevent physician burnout and dropout.

The treatment of radioiodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer (RAIR-DTC) has made significant advancements in the twenty-first century. This study aimed to assess the current state of research and identify potential new directions by conducting a bibliometric analysis of scientific publications on RAIR-DTC treatment. Publications relevant to RAIR-DTC, published from January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2023, were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection. Bibliometric analyses of major keywords, authors, countries, institutions, publications, and journals were conducted using CiteSpace and VOSviewer. A total of 859 papers were included in the analysis. The results demonstrated a rising trend in the number of publications over time. The United States was identified as the leading contributor in terms of publication output, citations, and international collaborations. Gustave Roussy emerged as the top organization in publication productivity, while the journal Thyroid had the highest number of related publications. The research on RAIR treatment was categorized into three key hotspots: clinical trials of targeted therapies, novel therapeutic strategies, and debates surrounding the RAIR-DTC management. RAIR-DTC research is expanding from the clinical trial phase of tyrosine kinase inhibitor monotherapy to a more complex combination therapy strategy, in particular, the synergistic effect of immune checkpoint inhibitors and other therapeutic agents, requiring more high-quality prospective studies to validate the clinical benefits. Moreover, the timely identification of RAIR-DTC patients holds the potential to enable early disease intervention, constituting a pivotal novel research direction in the future.