No abstract available

[en] This book presents the technology and the performance of the 18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron tomography in cancer research. The interests, the radiotherapy fields and the therapeutic monitoring are presented. It illustrates the efficiency of the couple TEP-tomodensitometry in the detection of neoplasms. Other tracers are introduced. (A.L.B.)

[en] The performances of MIBI, a technetium labelled compound for myocardial perfusion imaging, are discussed by the authors. Overall performances for detection of coronary heart disease show a good correlation between MIBI and thallium 201. Nevertheless, MIBI underestimates the extent of the ischemic myocardium, and the contrast ratio between normal and pathological myocardium is smaller with MIBI than with thallium 201 for the assessment of hibernating myocardium. MIBI characteristics contribute to optimize gamma cameras scheduling and enable to lower patient's radiation while improving image quality. (authors)

No abstract available

[en] We performed a retrospective study comparing computed tomography (CT) and DMSA-^99mTc scintigraphy (DMSA) in the evaluation of renal disease in acute pyelonephritis. Thirty-four 39± 20 year old female patients were studied. DMSA scintigraphy was performed 11.4±5.8 days after infection onset. Planar posterior views were obtained 4 to 6 hours after injection of 80 MBq of ^99mTc-DMSA. Renal uptake was also quantified after kidney depth had been measured by ultrasonography. CT was performed with and without bolus injection of contrast medium 15.5± 10.6 days after infection onset. DMSA images were read independently by three blind NM doctors, using three posterior views. Cortical renal defects were evaluated on three different renal segments on the top, middle and bottom. CT films were also read by three expert physicians. Thirty-two out of 34 patients had renal cortical defects on DMSA and 17 had only CT consistent with pyelonephritis. Cortical defects were bilateral in 22 out of 32 patients and in three out of 17 CT studies. Bilateral and left kidney lesions on CT (five cases) were also present on DMSA. Four out of 12 patients with isolated right kidney abnormalities at CT scan showed defects limited to the right kidney on DMSA, but eight had bilateral defects. After exclusion of two patients with renal failure, ten normal kidneys had a 22.9±5.4 % uptake that was significantly different from that of damaged kidneys (18.8±7.4 %), p<0.05. In 204 renal segments, 29 showed a concordant defect on CT and DMSA, and 127 were normal on both scans. Eighteen showed defects on CT but did not on DMSA, 27 were CT negative but DMSA positive, with three DMSA false positives due to renal cysts. We concluded that DMSA cortical renal scan appears to be more sensitive than CT to evaluate renal damage in patients with acute pyelonephritis. (authors)

[en] Full text of publication follows. Aim: our purpose was to compare different Methods of calculating ⁹⁰Y microspheres activity for liver treatment by Internal Selective Radiation Therapy (SIRT). Such comparison is not yet available and is needed in clinics to optimize patient specific dosimetry. We also investigated lungs breakthrough (LB) calculation and its impact on the maximum injectable activity. Materials and Methods: 31 consecutive evaluations based on ^99mTc macro-aggregates (MAA), followed by 25 treatments with ⁹⁰Y microspheres SIR-spheres^R (SIRTEX) were performed. Tumor and healthy liver volumes were determined by the interventional radiologist on anatomical images acquired with a standard contrast enhanced CT (ceCT) protocol. To determine the Tumor to Normal liver uptake ratio (T/N), regions of interest (ROIs) were drawn on ^99mTc MAA SPECT/CT images acquired with a hybrid gamma camera Infinia-Hawkeye (GE). The ROIs were drawn by both a nuclear physicist and a physician via a triple fusion between SPECT/CT data, ceCT and either PET or MRI. For each treatment, four different Methods of calculating ⁹⁰Y activity were applied retrospectively: 3 based on Body Surface Area (BSA-1, BSA-2 and BSA Kennedy) and one based on MIRD formalism (Partition Model). Relationships between calculated activities, LB, T/N ratio and tumor involvement were investigated. In the same way, lobar and total liver treatments were analysed separately. Results: when attenuation correction was not considered, overestimation of LB was on average 65%, but in any case the estimated lungs' doses were below 30 Gy. Moreover, LB was not significantly related to the T/N ratio, neither to tumor involvement nor Radiochemical Purity. Differences in calculated ⁹⁰Y activities were extremely large, being greater for lobar treatments (from -85% to 417%) than whole liver treatments (from -49% to 58%). Besides, 2 values of T/N ratio were identified as thresholds: one for BSA-based Methods (average dose to healthy liver is higher than 30 Gy for T/N ≤ 3) and one for partition model (average dose to tumor is higher than 120 Gy for T/N ≥ 4). Conclusion: the maximum injectable activity is not limited by lung irradiation. As the partition model accounts for differences in uptake between normal and tumour liver, thus optimizing the risk-benefit ratio, this method should be preferred over BSA-based Methods. Nevertheless, partition model assumes an adequate match between MAA and ⁹⁰Y microspheres that should be investigated with further studies. Calculating doses with partition model partially introduces a bias that would be removed using a gold standard method such as Monte Carlo simulations. (authors)

No abstract available

[en] Full text: We present experiments in the context of Bose-Hubbard physics, combining optical lattice potentials with the capability to tune the strength of the particle interaction U. We prepare and study doublons formed by two bosons in an optical lattice at attractive or repulsive interactions. Around zero interactions we observe a rapid decay of doublons as the binding energy vanishes. For large repulsive interactions a decay of doublons is observed, whereas such a decay is absent for attractively bound doublons. Analysing the loss of doublons and the total atom number reveals off-resonant three-body loss as one decay mechanism for large repulsive interactions. (author)

[en] Evaluating the extent of disease is important in planning cancer treatment. Different types of tracers are used in vivo to diagnose tumors and these tracers can give supplementary information on the differentiation degree of tumors and response to therapy. (authors)

[en] Introduction. - Infective endocarditis (IE) is a serious disease whose diagnosis is often difficult. PET ¹⁸F-FDG has great potential in this indication, since it has already shown its contributions in the field of inflammation and infection. The objective of this study is to assess the contribution of PET in suspicion of IE in patients with prosthetic heart valve or implantable intracardiac devices. Patients and methods. - This is a single-center, retrospective study in nuclear medicine department of Georges-Pompidou European hospital in Paris between May 2012 and May 2015. Patients were included for suspicion of IE of prosthetic heart valve or implantable intracardiac devices. The diagnosis of IE was based on histological data or monitoring up to 6 months. The clinical, laboratory, ultrasound and microbiological data were collected and analyzed for each patient. The results of PET by visual and semi-quantitative analysis were compared to the final diagnoses. Results. - Thirty-five patients were included in the study, with 23 suspected of infection on cardiac valve and 12 suspected of infection on intracardiac device. The final diagnosis of IE was confirmed in 13 patients. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and diagnostic accuracy of IE were respectively 92%, 77%, 71%, 94% and 83%. There was a significant difference for the SUV_max ratio (infected site/surrounding) for IE groups confirmed vs unconfirmed IE. It was not revealed other factors that could potentially influence the diagnostic performance. Conclusion. - PET provides a very good sensitivity and a rather good specificity in diagnosis of IE. The results are consistent with the findings of the current literature. The validity of this imaging technique should be confirmed in a prospective clinical study with a larger number of patients. (authors)