Purpose. To assess the short-term efficacy and safety of ultrasonographically (US)-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) ablation for treatment of benign solid thyroid nodules. Materials and Methods. This prospective study was approved by the institutional ethics committee, and written informed consent was acquired. HIFU ablation was performed in one session with US guidance and conscious sedation in 20 euthyroid patients (mean age, 44.5 years) with a benign solitary or dominant thyroid nodule. Thyroid nodule volume, US structure, and Doppler pattern were assessed at baseline, at 1 week, and at 1, 3, and 6 months after treatment. Adverse events associated with HIFU were evaluated. Statistical analysis was conducted by using repeated measures analysis of variance, the Student t test, χ2 test, and correlation analysis. Results. The mean ± standard deviation nodule volume was 4.96 mL ± 2.79 at the start of the study. Nodule volume had decreased to 3.05 mL ± 1.96 at the 3-month follow-up examination (n = 20, P ( .001), and reached 2.91 mL ± 2.43 by the 6-month follow-up examination (n = 16, P ( .001). By then, the mean volume reduction was 48.7% ± 24.3 (P ( .001). Isoechoic nodules showed greater reduction at 1 month than did hypoechoic nodules (31.6% ± 18.1 vs 16.4% ± 8.6, P = .053). Nodules with markedly increased blood flow showed smaller volume reduction at 3 months than did less-vascularized nodules (10.9% ± 14.5 vs 41.5% ± 20.3, P = .054). Minor transient complications (eg, subcutaneous edema, mild skin redness) were observed in two patients. Conclusion. Early data suggest that US-guided HIFU ablation is an effective and safe procedure for treatment of benign solid thyroid nodules. Initial US echogenicity and vascularization influence the ablation outcome.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2244524
A realistic model of a finger joint, healthy and affected by arthritis, was constructed. Reflectance and transmittance hyperspectral images were determined using 3D Monte Carlo light transport in the models. It was demonstrated, that two diagnostic windows exist in NIR and SWIR regions, and that transmittance image contains valuable information about the disease. The proposed diagnostic technique is being tested using an imaging device prototype in a clinical study.
COBISS.SI-ID: 28864551
PET scanners can be improved with an addition of a high-resolution probe made out of silicon sensors. The addition, even with a small number of collected high-resolution events, can significantly improve resolution of collected data, which is a mixture of standard event and events from the probe. The paper evaluates spatial resolution of the system for different spatial arrangements of the probe.
COBISS.SI-ID: 30056743
Radiolabeled minigastrin analog 111In-CP04, which was developed in cooperation of University Medical Centre Ljubljana and University hospital Basel, was selected for further translation as a diagnostic radiopharmaceutical towards phase I clinical trial in patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC). Biosafety, in vivo stability, biodistribution and dosimetry aspects of 111In-CP04 in animal models, essential for the regulatory approval of the clinical trial were conducted. The present study has provided convincing toxicology, pharmacokinetic and dosimetric data of 111In-CP04 for its prompt implementation in a multicentre clinical trial in MTC patients.
COBISS.SI-ID: 3004844
18F-NaF, a PET radiotracer of bone turnover, has shown potential as an imaging biomarker for assessing the response of bone metastases to therapy. This study aimed to evaluate the repeatability of 18F-NaF PET-derived SUV imaging metrics in individual bone lesions from patients in a multicenter study. METHODS: Thirty-five castration-resistant prostate cancer patients with multiple metastases underwent 2 whole-body (test-retest) 18F-NaF PET/CT scans 3 ± 2 d apart from 1 of 3 imaging sites. A total of 411 bone lesions larger than 1.5 cm3 were automatically segmented using an SUV threshold of 15 g/mL. Two levels of analysis were performed: lesion-level, in which measures were extracted from individual-lesion regions of interest (ROI), and patient-level, in which all lesions within a patient were grouped into a patient ROI for analysis. Uptake was quantified with SUVmax, SUVmean, and SUVtotal Test-retest repeatability was assessed using Bland-Altman analysis, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), coefficient of variation, critical percentage difference, and repeatability coefficient. The 95% limit of agreement (LOA) of the ratio between test and retest measurements was calculated. RESULTS: At the lesion level, the coefficient of variation for SUVmax, SUVmean, and SUVtotal was 14.1%, 6.6%, and 25.5%, respectively. At the patient level, it was slightly smaller: 12.0%, 5.3%, and 18.5%, respectively. ICC was excellent ()0.95) for all SUV metrics. Lesion-level 95% LOA for SUVmax, SUVmean, and SUVtotal was (0.76, 1.32), (0.88, 1.14), and (0.63, 1.71), respectively. Patient-level 95% LOA was slightly narrower, at (0.79, 1.26), (0.89, 1.10), and (0.70, 1.44), respectively. We observed significant differences in the variance and sample mean of lesion-level and patient-level measurements between imaging sites. CONCLUSION: The repeatability of SUVmax, SUVmean, and SUVtotal for 18F-NaF PET/CT was similar between lesion- and patient-level ROIs. We found significant differences in lesion-level and patient-level distributions between sites. These results can be used to establish 18F-NaF PET-based criteria for assessing treatment response at the lesion and patient levels. 18F-NaF PET demonstrates repeatability levels useful for clinically quantifying the response of bone lesions to therapy.
COBISS.SI-ID: 3065700