Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Public grant(s) – EU funding. Main funding sour... more Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Public grant(s) – EU funding. Main funding source(s): European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme - No 952166 (REPAIR) Regione Toscana - Bando Ricerca Salute 2018 - PERCARE project. Severe remodeling processes may occur in the heart due to both genetic and non-genetic diseases. Structural remodeling, such as collagen deposition (fibrosis) and cellular misalignment, can affect electrical conduction at different orders of magnitude and, eventually, lead to arrhythmias. In this scenario, arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM) is an inherited heart disease that involves ventricular dysfunction, arrhythmias, and localized replacement of contractile fibers with fibrofatty scar tissue. Unfortunately, nowadays, predicting the impact of fine structural alterations on the electrical dysfunction in entire organs is challenging, due to the inefficacy of standard imaging methods in performing high-resolution three-dimensional rec...
Purpose: To assess agreement between 123I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) and Whole Body Magnetic ... more Purpose: To assess agreement between 123I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) and Whole Body Magnetic Resonance Imaging with diffusion-weighted whole-body imaging with background body signal suppression (WB MRI-DWIBS) in High and Low, Intermediate risk neuroblastoma, a retrospective review was performed on MIBG and DWIBS paired scans acquired at diagnosis, response-to-therapy steps, after-surgery, off therapy.Methods: 80 paired MIBG and DWIBS scans were acquired for 31 patients between June 2009 and June 2019 within 30 days, without intercurrent therapy. SIOPEN Semi-quantitative scoring systems for NB with 12 body sections was applied at whole body MIBG and WB MRI-DWIBS acquired to evaluate the disease extent. We evaluated specificity, sensitivity, overall accuracy, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of WB MRI-DWIBS respect MIBG scintigraphy considered as gold standard, and vice versa.Results: DWIBS and MIBG images were concordant in 890 out of the 960 an...
The Quarterly Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, 2005
The aim of this study was three-fold: 1) to quantify [131I]-6beta-iodomethyl-norcholesterol ([131... more The aim of this study was three-fold: 1) to quantify [131I]-6beta-iodomethyl-norcholesterol ([131I]-NP-59) adrenal uptake trend in patients with incidentalomas, 2) to identify a specific uptake trend (TREND) capable of characterising pre-clinical Cushing syndrome (PC-CS) patients, 3) to assess the clinical availability of TREND as a prognostic factor of late clinical outcome in a cohort of patients with bilateral adrenal adenomas. Fifty-seven consecutive patients were examined using three-head SPECT at 24, 48, 72 hours following intravenous injection of [131I ]-NP-59. On the basis of the absence or presence of hormonal abnormalities, the selected population was classified as GR1 or GR2, respectively. Adrenal glands were classified into 4 groups taking into account both the patient group (GR1, GR2) and the presence (+) or absence (-) of the adenoma (AD) on CT scan. Using ROI technique, adrenal-liver uptake ratio (A/L) was estimated bilaterally at 24, 48 and 72 hours. For each adrenal...
Background. Reflux nephropathy (RN) is a patho- physiological human model of reduced nephron rese... more Background. Reflux nephropathy (RN) is a patho- physiological human model of reduced nephron reserve, due to loss of renal mass, but little information exists about the role of urinary endothelin-1 (uET-1) in this disease. The aim of this study was to assess the presence of uET-1-like-immunoreactivity (uET-1L) in RN patients, particularly if lateralized renal damage existed. Methods. Thirty patients with
AIM The aim of this study was three-fold: 1) to quantify [131I]-6beta-iodomethyl-norcholesterol (... more AIM The aim of this study was three-fold: 1) to quantify [131I]-6beta-iodomethyl-norcholesterol ([131I]-NP-59) adrenal uptake trend in patients with incidentalomas, 2) to identify a specific uptake trend (TREND) capable of characterising pre-clinical Cushing syndrome (PC-CS) patients, 3) to assess the clinical availability of TREND as a prognostic factor of late clinical outcome in a cohort of patients with bilateral adrenal adenomas. METHODS Fifty-seven consecutive patients were examined using three-head SPECT at 24, 48, 72 hours following intravenous injection of [131I ]-NP-59. On the basis of the absence or presence of hormonal abnormalities, the selected population was classified as GR1 or GR2, respectively. Adrenal glands were classified into 4 groups taking into account both the patient group (GR1, GR2) and the presence (+) or absence (-) of the adenoma (AD) on CT scan. Using ROI technique, adrenal-liver uptake ratio (A/L) was estimated bilaterally at 24, 48 and 72 hours. For ...
UNLABELLED The goal of this study was to evaluate the clinical reliability of the (131)I-6 beta-i... more UNLABELLED The goal of this study was to evaluate the clinical reliability of the (131)I-6 beta-iodomethyl-norcholesterol ((131)I-NP-59) uptake semiquantitative evaluation method we propose for the characterization of adrenocortical masses in a selected population of patients with disease clinically classified as subclinical (SC) and preclinical (PC) Cushing's syndrome (CS) according to Reincke's definition. METHODS Forty-seven consecutive patients with incidentally discovered unilateral adrenal masses were examined by a triple-head SPECT system after intravenous injection of (131)I-NP-59. Abdominal SPECT was performed at 24, 48, 72, and, in selected cases, 96 h after tracer injection. Connected with adrenals and liver, a standard elliptic region of interest (ROI) was manually drawn, taking care to avoid the gallbladder region. The adrenal ROI integral count, obtained by summing the 24-, 48-, and 72-h counting values, was normalized by the hepatic integral count. Subsequentl...
Purpose: To assess the agreement between 123I-metaiodobenzylguanidine or [123I]-I-mIBG and Whole ... more Purpose: To assess the agreement between 123I-metaiodobenzylguanidine or [123I]-I-mIBG and Whole Body Magnetic Resonance Imaging with diffusion-weighted whole-body imaging with background body signal suppression (WB MRI-DWIBS) in High and Intermediate risk Neuroblastoma, a retrospective review was performed on [123I]-I-mIBG and DWIBS paired scans acquired at diagnosis, response-to-therapy, after-surgery, off therapy and after relapse with systemic involvement, and osteo-bone marrow metastatic load was evaluated for each of them. Methods: 80 paired [123I]-I-mIBG and DWIBS scans were acquired for 31 patients between June 2009 and June 2019 within 30 days and without intercurrent therapy. SIOPEN Semi-quantitative Scoring Systems for NB with 12 body sections was applied at whole body MIBG and WB MRI-DWIBS acquired to evaluate the skeletal disease extent. In each case thoracic-abdominal SPECT was used to confirm or exclude doubtful scintigraphic alterations. We evaluated specificity, sen...
To determine whether the short-term systemic and renal hemodynamic response to dopamine is influe... more To determine whether the short-term systemic and renal hemodynamic response to dopamine is influenced by clinical severity of congestive heart failure. Effects of increasing doses of dopamine were assessed in patients consecutively admitted for acutely decompensated congestive heart failure. Intensive care unit. We enrolled 16 congestive heart failure patients stratified by clinical severity (New York Heart Association [NYHA] class III, n = 8; NYHA class IV, n = 8) and two additional NYHA class III patients as controls. Measurements were carried out throughout five 20-min experimental periods: baseline, dopamine infusion at 2, 4, and 6 microg x kg(-1) x min(-1), and recovery. Controls received a similar amount of saline. Systemic and renal hemodynamics were determined respectively by right cardiac catheterization and radioisotopes (iodine 131-labeled hippuran and iodine 125-labeled iothalamate clearance). The peak increase in heart rate and cardiac index occurred at a dopamine dose ...
To determine whether the short-term systemic and renal hemodynamic response to dopamine is influe... more To determine whether the short-term systemic and renal hemodynamic response to dopamine is influenced by clinical severity of congestive heart failure. Effects of increasing doses of dopamine were assessed in patients consecutively admitted for acutely decompensated congestive heart failure. Intensive care unit. We enrolled 16 congestive heart failure patients stratified by clinical severity (New York Heart Association [NYHA] class III, n = 8; NYHA class IV, n = 8) and two additional NYHA class III patients as controls. Measurements were carried out throughout five 20-min experimental periods: baseline, dopamine infusion at 2, 4, and 6 microg x kg(-1) x min(-1), and recovery. Controls received a similar amount of saline. Systemic and renal hemodynamics were determined respectively by right cardiac catheterization and radioisotopes (iodine 131-labeled hippuran and iodine 125-labeled iothalamate clearance). The peak increase in heart rate and cardiac index occurred at a dopamine dose of 4-6 microg x kg(-1) x min(-1). The dose-response relation was similar in NYHA classes III and IV. Improvement in effective renal plasma flow and glomerular filtration rate, peaking at 4 microg x kg(-1) x min(-1), was more rapid and marked in NYHA class III than class IV patients, in whom the renal fraction of cardiac output failed to increase. The systemic and renal effects of dopamine were independent of age. No change occurred in controls. The dose of dopamine producing an optimal improvement of systemic and renal hemodynamics in congestive heart failure is higher than usually reported. A greater clinical severity of congestive heart failure impairs the renal effects of dopamine, probably through a selective loss in renal vasodilating capacity.
Journal of nuclear medicine : official publication, Society of Nuclear Medicine, 2003
The goal of this study was to evaluate the clinical reliability of the (131)I-6 beta-iodomethyl-n... more The goal of this study was to evaluate the clinical reliability of the (131)I-6 beta-iodomethyl-norcholesterol ((131)I-NP-59) uptake semiquantitative evaluation method we propose for the characterization of adrenocortical masses in a selected population of patients with disease clinically classified as subclinical (SC) and preclinical (PC) Cushing's syndrome (CS) according to Reincke's definition. Forty-seven consecutive patients with incidentally discovered unilateral adrenal masses were examined by a triple-head SPECT system after intravenous injection of (131)I-NP-59. Abdominal SPECT was performed at 24, 48, 72, and, in selected cases, 96 h after tracer injection. Connected with adrenals and liver, a standard elliptic region of interest (ROI) was manually drawn, taking care to avoid the gallbladder region. The adrenal ROI integral count, obtained by summing the 24-, 48-, and 72-h counting values, was normalized by the hepatic integral count. Subsequently, the adrenal perc...
Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Public grant(s) – EU funding. Main funding sour... more Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Public grant(s) – EU funding. Main funding source(s): European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme - No 952166 (REPAIR) Regione Toscana - Bando Ricerca Salute 2018 - PERCARE project. Severe remodeling processes may occur in the heart due to both genetic and non-genetic diseases. Structural remodeling, such as collagen deposition (fibrosis) and cellular misalignment, can affect electrical conduction at different orders of magnitude and, eventually, lead to arrhythmias. In this scenario, arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM) is an inherited heart disease that involves ventricular dysfunction, arrhythmias, and localized replacement of contractile fibers with fibrofatty scar tissue. Unfortunately, nowadays, predicting the impact of fine structural alterations on the electrical dysfunction in entire organs is challenging, due to the inefficacy of standard imaging methods in performing high-resolution three-dimensional rec...
Purpose: To assess agreement between 123I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) and Whole Body Magnetic ... more Purpose: To assess agreement between 123I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) and Whole Body Magnetic Resonance Imaging with diffusion-weighted whole-body imaging with background body signal suppression (WB MRI-DWIBS) in High and Low, Intermediate risk neuroblastoma, a retrospective review was performed on MIBG and DWIBS paired scans acquired at diagnosis, response-to-therapy steps, after-surgery, off therapy.Methods: 80 paired MIBG and DWIBS scans were acquired for 31 patients between June 2009 and June 2019 within 30 days, without intercurrent therapy. SIOPEN Semi-quantitative scoring systems for NB with 12 body sections was applied at whole body MIBG and WB MRI-DWIBS acquired to evaluate the disease extent. We evaluated specificity, sensitivity, overall accuracy, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of WB MRI-DWIBS respect MIBG scintigraphy considered as gold standard, and vice versa.Results: DWIBS and MIBG images were concordant in 890 out of the 960 an...
The Quarterly Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, 2005
The aim of this study was three-fold: 1) to quantify [131I]-6beta-iodomethyl-norcholesterol ([131... more The aim of this study was three-fold: 1) to quantify [131I]-6beta-iodomethyl-norcholesterol ([131I]-NP-59) adrenal uptake trend in patients with incidentalomas, 2) to identify a specific uptake trend (TREND) capable of characterising pre-clinical Cushing syndrome (PC-CS) patients, 3) to assess the clinical availability of TREND as a prognostic factor of late clinical outcome in a cohort of patients with bilateral adrenal adenomas. Fifty-seven consecutive patients were examined using three-head SPECT at 24, 48, 72 hours following intravenous injection of [131I ]-NP-59. On the basis of the absence or presence of hormonal abnormalities, the selected population was classified as GR1 or GR2, respectively. Adrenal glands were classified into 4 groups taking into account both the patient group (GR1, GR2) and the presence (+) or absence (-) of the adenoma (AD) on CT scan. Using ROI technique, adrenal-liver uptake ratio (A/L) was estimated bilaterally at 24, 48 and 72 hours. For each adrenal...
Background. Reflux nephropathy (RN) is a patho- physiological human model of reduced nephron rese... more Background. Reflux nephropathy (RN) is a patho- physiological human model of reduced nephron reserve, due to loss of renal mass, but little information exists about the role of urinary endothelin-1 (uET-1) in this disease. The aim of this study was to assess the presence of uET-1-like-immunoreactivity (uET-1L) in RN patients, particularly if lateralized renal damage existed. Methods. Thirty patients with
AIM The aim of this study was three-fold: 1) to quantify [131I]-6beta-iodomethyl-norcholesterol (... more AIM The aim of this study was three-fold: 1) to quantify [131I]-6beta-iodomethyl-norcholesterol ([131I]-NP-59) adrenal uptake trend in patients with incidentalomas, 2) to identify a specific uptake trend (TREND) capable of characterising pre-clinical Cushing syndrome (PC-CS) patients, 3) to assess the clinical availability of TREND as a prognostic factor of late clinical outcome in a cohort of patients with bilateral adrenal adenomas. METHODS Fifty-seven consecutive patients were examined using three-head SPECT at 24, 48, 72 hours following intravenous injection of [131I ]-NP-59. On the basis of the absence or presence of hormonal abnormalities, the selected population was classified as GR1 or GR2, respectively. Adrenal glands were classified into 4 groups taking into account both the patient group (GR1, GR2) and the presence (+) or absence (-) of the adenoma (AD) on CT scan. Using ROI technique, adrenal-liver uptake ratio (A/L) was estimated bilaterally at 24, 48 and 72 hours. For ...
UNLABELLED The goal of this study was to evaluate the clinical reliability of the (131)I-6 beta-i... more UNLABELLED The goal of this study was to evaluate the clinical reliability of the (131)I-6 beta-iodomethyl-norcholesterol ((131)I-NP-59) uptake semiquantitative evaluation method we propose for the characterization of adrenocortical masses in a selected population of patients with disease clinically classified as subclinical (SC) and preclinical (PC) Cushing's syndrome (CS) according to Reincke's definition. METHODS Forty-seven consecutive patients with incidentally discovered unilateral adrenal masses were examined by a triple-head SPECT system after intravenous injection of (131)I-NP-59. Abdominal SPECT was performed at 24, 48, 72, and, in selected cases, 96 h after tracer injection. Connected with adrenals and liver, a standard elliptic region of interest (ROI) was manually drawn, taking care to avoid the gallbladder region. The adrenal ROI integral count, obtained by summing the 24-, 48-, and 72-h counting values, was normalized by the hepatic integral count. Subsequentl...
Purpose: To assess the agreement between 123I-metaiodobenzylguanidine or [123I]-I-mIBG and Whole ... more Purpose: To assess the agreement between 123I-metaiodobenzylguanidine or [123I]-I-mIBG and Whole Body Magnetic Resonance Imaging with diffusion-weighted whole-body imaging with background body signal suppression (WB MRI-DWIBS) in High and Intermediate risk Neuroblastoma, a retrospective review was performed on [123I]-I-mIBG and DWIBS paired scans acquired at diagnosis, response-to-therapy, after-surgery, off therapy and after relapse with systemic involvement, and osteo-bone marrow metastatic load was evaluated for each of them. Methods: 80 paired [123I]-I-mIBG and DWIBS scans were acquired for 31 patients between June 2009 and June 2019 within 30 days and without intercurrent therapy. SIOPEN Semi-quantitative Scoring Systems for NB with 12 body sections was applied at whole body MIBG and WB MRI-DWIBS acquired to evaluate the skeletal disease extent. In each case thoracic-abdominal SPECT was used to confirm or exclude doubtful scintigraphic alterations. We evaluated specificity, sen...
To determine whether the short-term systemic and renal hemodynamic response to dopamine is influe... more To determine whether the short-term systemic and renal hemodynamic response to dopamine is influenced by clinical severity of congestive heart failure. Effects of increasing doses of dopamine were assessed in patients consecutively admitted for acutely decompensated congestive heart failure. Intensive care unit. We enrolled 16 congestive heart failure patients stratified by clinical severity (New York Heart Association [NYHA] class III, n = 8; NYHA class IV, n = 8) and two additional NYHA class III patients as controls. Measurements were carried out throughout five 20-min experimental periods: baseline, dopamine infusion at 2, 4, and 6 microg x kg(-1) x min(-1), and recovery. Controls received a similar amount of saline. Systemic and renal hemodynamics were determined respectively by right cardiac catheterization and radioisotopes (iodine 131-labeled hippuran and iodine 125-labeled iothalamate clearance). The peak increase in heart rate and cardiac index occurred at a dopamine dose ...
To determine whether the short-term systemic and renal hemodynamic response to dopamine is influe... more To determine whether the short-term systemic and renal hemodynamic response to dopamine is influenced by clinical severity of congestive heart failure. Effects of increasing doses of dopamine were assessed in patients consecutively admitted for acutely decompensated congestive heart failure. Intensive care unit. We enrolled 16 congestive heart failure patients stratified by clinical severity (New York Heart Association [NYHA] class III, n = 8; NYHA class IV, n = 8) and two additional NYHA class III patients as controls. Measurements were carried out throughout five 20-min experimental periods: baseline, dopamine infusion at 2, 4, and 6 microg x kg(-1) x min(-1), and recovery. Controls received a similar amount of saline. Systemic and renal hemodynamics were determined respectively by right cardiac catheterization and radioisotopes (iodine 131-labeled hippuran and iodine 125-labeled iothalamate clearance). The peak increase in heart rate and cardiac index occurred at a dopamine dose of 4-6 microg x kg(-1) x min(-1). The dose-response relation was similar in NYHA classes III and IV. Improvement in effective renal plasma flow and glomerular filtration rate, peaking at 4 microg x kg(-1) x min(-1), was more rapid and marked in NYHA class III than class IV patients, in whom the renal fraction of cardiac output failed to increase. The systemic and renal effects of dopamine were independent of age. No change occurred in controls. The dose of dopamine producing an optimal improvement of systemic and renal hemodynamics in congestive heart failure is higher than usually reported. A greater clinical severity of congestive heart failure impairs the renal effects of dopamine, probably through a selective loss in renal vasodilating capacity.
Journal of nuclear medicine : official publication, Society of Nuclear Medicine, 2003
The goal of this study was to evaluate the clinical reliability of the (131)I-6 beta-iodomethyl-n... more The goal of this study was to evaluate the clinical reliability of the (131)I-6 beta-iodomethyl-norcholesterol ((131)I-NP-59) uptake semiquantitative evaluation method we propose for the characterization of adrenocortical masses in a selected population of patients with disease clinically classified as subclinical (SC) and preclinical (PC) Cushing's syndrome (CS) according to Reincke's definition. Forty-seven consecutive patients with incidentally discovered unilateral adrenal masses were examined by a triple-head SPECT system after intravenous injection of (131)I-NP-59. Abdominal SPECT was performed at 24, 48, 72, and, in selected cases, 96 h after tracer injection. Connected with adrenals and liver, a standard elliptic region of interest (ROI) was manually drawn, taking care to avoid the gallbladder region. The adrenal ROI integral count, obtained by summing the 24-, 48-, and 72-h counting values, was normalized by the hepatic integral count. Subsequently, the adrenal perc...
Uploads
Papers