Diagnostic value of 18F-FDG PET in the assessment of myocardial viability in coronary artery disease: A comparative study with 99mTc SPECT and echocardiography

Objectives: To investigate the diagnostic value of 18F-FDG PET in the assessment of myocardial viability in patients with known coronary artery disease (CAD) when compared to 99mTc SPECT and echocardiography, with invasive coronary angiography as the gold standard.Methods: Thirty patients with diagnosed CAD met the selection criteria, with 10 of them (9 men; mean age 59.5 ± 10.5 years) undergoing all of these imaging procedures consisting of SPECT and PET, echocardiography and invasive angiography. Diagnostic sensitivity of these less invasive modalities for detection of myocardial viability was compared to invasive coronary angiography. Inter- and intra-observer agreement was assessed for diagnostic performance of SPECT and PET.Results: Of all patients with proven CAD, 50% had triple vessel disease. Diagnostic sensitivity of SPECT, PET and echocardiography was 90%, 100% and 80% at patient-based assessment, respectively. Excellent agreement was achieved between inter-observer and intra-observer agreement of the diagnostic value of SPECT and PET in myocardial viability (k=0.9).Conclusions: 18F-FDG PET has high diagnostic value in the assessment of myocardial viability in patients with known CAD when compared to SPECT and echocardiography. Further studies based on a large cohort with incorporation of 18F-FDG PET into patient management are warranted

Diagnostic value of SPECT, PET and PET/CT in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease: A systematic review

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to investigate the diagnostic value of SPECT, PET and PET/CT in thediagnosis of coronary artery disease, based on a systematic review. Material and Methods: A search of PubMed/Medline and Sciencedirect databases in the English-language literature published over the last 24 years was performed. Only studies with at least 10 patients comparing SPECT, PET or combined PET/CT with invasive coronary angiography in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease (50% stenosis) were included for analysis. Sensitivities and specificities estimates pooled across studies were analysed using a Chisquare test.Results: Twenty-five studies met the selection criteria and were included for the analysis. Ten studies were performed with SPECT alone; while another six studies were performed with PET alone. Five studies were carried outwith both PET and SPECT modalities, and the remaining four studies were investigated with integrated PET-CT. Themean value of sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of these imaging modalities for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease was 82% (95%CI: 76 to 88), 76% (95%CI: 70 to 82) and 83% (95%CI: 77 to 89) for SPECT; 91% (95%CI: 85to 97), 89% (95%CI: 83 to 95) and 89% (95%CI: 83 to 95) for PET; and 85% (95%CI: 79 to 90), 83% (95%CI: 77 to 89)and 88% (95%CI: 82 to 94) for PET/CT, respectively. The diagnostic accuracy of these imaging modalities wasdependent on the radiotracers used in these studies, with ammonia resulting in the highest diagnostic value.Conclusion: Our review shows that PET has high diagnostic value for diagnosing coronary artery disease, and this indicates that it is a valuable technique for both detection and prediction of coronary artery disease

Biallelic variants in ZNF142 lead to a syndromic neurodevelopmental disorder.

Biallelic variants of the gene encoding for the zinc-finger protein 142 (ZNF142) have recently been associated with intellectual disability (ID), speech impairment, seizures, and movement disorders in nine individuals from five families. In this study, we obtained phenotype and genotype information of 26 further individuals from 16 families. Among the 27 different ZNF142 variants identified in the total of 35 individuals only four were missense. Missense variants may give a milder phenotype by changing the local structure of ZF motifs as suggested by protein modeling; but this correlation should be validated in larger cohorts and pathogenicity of the missense variants should be investigated with functional studies. Clinical features of the 35 individuals suggest that biallelic ZNF142 variants lead to a syndromic neurodevelopmental disorder with mild to moderate ID, varying degrees of delay in language and gross motor development, early onset seizures, hypotonia, behavioral features, movement disorders, and facial dysmorphism. The differences in symptom frequencies observed in the unpublished individuals compared to those of published, and recognition of previously underemphasized facial features are likely to be due to the small sizes of the previous cohorts, which underlines the importance of larger cohorts for the phenotype descriptions of rare genetic disorders

Double-Low Dose Protocol of Computed Tomography Pulmonary Angiography (CTPA) in the Diagnosis of Pulmonary Embolism: A Feasible Approach for Reduction of Both Contrast Medium and Radiation Doses

This article discusses a hot topic on double low-dose protocol of computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) in the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism, with a special focus on a recent paper published in the British Journal of Radiology about the feasibility of this technique. Three aspects will be discussed in this review: First, both kVp and contrast medium can be reduced without affecting image quality when compared to the standard CTPA protocol; second, a low-pitch protocol is comparable to the high-pitch spiral image acquisition with similar image quality achieved, but at lower radiation dose; and finally, the double low-dose CTPA protocol can achieve diagnostic images in patients with body mass index up to 35 kg/m2

doi: 10.2349/biij.7.2.e9 biij Biomedical Imaging and Intervention Journal REVIEW ARTICLE Diagnostic value of SPECT, PET and PET/CT in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease: A systematic review

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to investigate the diagnostic value of SPECT, PET and PET/CT in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease, based on a systematic review. Material and Methods: A search of PubMed/Medline and Sciencedirect databases in the English-language literature published over the last 24 years was performed. Only studies with at least 10 patients comparing SPECT, PET or combined PET/CT with invasive coronary angiography in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease (50 % stenosis) were included for analysis. Sensitivities and specificities estimates pooled across studies were analysed using a Chisquare test. Results: Twenty-five studies met the selection criteria and were included for the analysis. Ten studies were performed with SPECT alone; while another six studies were performed with PET alone. Five studies were carried out with both PET and SPECT modalities, and the remaining four studies were investigated with integrated PET-CT. The mean value of sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of these imaging modalities for the diagnosis of coronary arter

<i>E. coli</i> Secretome Metabolically Modulates MDA-MB-231 Breast Cancer Cells’ Energy Metabolism

Breast cancer (BC) is commonly diagnosed in women. BC cells are associated with altered metabolism, which is essential to support their energetic requirements, cellular proliferation, and continuous survival. The altered metabolism of BC cells is a result of the genetic abnormalities of BC cells. Risk factors can also enhance it, including age, lifestyle, hormone disturbances, etc. Other unknown BC-promoting risk factors are under scientific investigation. One of these investigated factors is the microbiome. However, whether the breast microbiome found in the BC tissue microenvironment can impact BC cells has not been studied. We hypothesized that E. coli, part of a normal breast microbiome with more presence in BC tissue, secretes metabolic molecules that could alter BC cells’ metabolism to maintain their survival. Thus, we directly examined the impact of the E. coli secretome on the metabolism of BC cells in vitro. MDA-MB-231 cells, an in vitro model of aggressive triple-negative BC cells, were treated with the E. coli secretome at different time points, followed by untargeted metabolomics analyses via liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry to identify metabolic alterations in the treated BC cell lines. MDA-MB-231 cells that were not treated were used as controls. Moreover, metabolomic analyses were performed on the E. coli secretome to profile the most significant bacterial metabolites affecting the metabolism of the treated BC cell lines. The metabolomics results revealed about 15 metabolites that potentially have indirect roles in cancer metabolism that were secreted from E. coli in the culture media of MDA-MB-231 cells. The cells treated with the E. coli secretome showed 105 dysregulated cellular metabolites compared to controls. The dysregulated cellular metabolites were involved in the metabolism of fructose and mannose, sphingolipids, amino acids, fatty acids, amino sugar, nucleotide sugar, and pyrimidine, which are vital pathways required for the pathogenesis of BC. Our findings are the first to show that the E. coli secretome modulates the BC cells’ energy metabolism, highlighting insights into the possibility of altered metabolic events in BC tissue in the actual BC tissue microenvironment that are potentially induced by the local bacteria. Our study provides metabolic data that could be as a basis for future studies searching for the underlying mechanisms mediated by bacteria and their secretome to alter the metabolism of BC cells

Design, Synthesis, Molecular Modeling and Anti-Hyperglycemic Evaluation of Quinazoline-Sulfonylurea Hybrids as Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Gamma (PPAR&gamma;) and Sulfonylurea Receptor (SUR) Agonists

New quinazoline-sulfonylurea hybrids were prepared and examined for their in vivo anti-hyperglycemic activities in STZ-induced hyperglycemic rats using glibenclamide as a reference drug. Compounds VI-6-a, V, IV-4, VI-4-c, IV-6, VI-2-a, IV-1, and IV-2 were more potent than the reference glibenclamide. They induced significant reduction in the blood glucose levels of diabetic rats: 78.2, 73.9, 71.4, 67.3, 62, 60.7, 58.4, and 55.9%, respectively, while the reference glibenclamide had 55.4%. Compounds IV-1, VI-2-a, IV-2, V, and IV-6 showed more prolonged antidiabetic activity than glibenclamide. Moreover, molecular docking and pharmacokinetic studies were performed to examine binding modes of the prepared compounds against peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR&gamma;). The highest active compounds exhibited good binding affinity with high free energy of binding against PPAR&gamma;. In silico absorption, distribution, metabolism, elimination and toxicity (ADMET) studies were performed to investigate pharmacokinetics and safety of the synthesized compounds. They showed considerable human intestinal absorption with low toxicity profile