Usefulness of FDG PET/CT in the management of tuberculosis

Tuberculosis; Positron emission tomography (PET); FDGTuberculosis; Tomografía por emisión de positrones (PET); FDGTuberculosi; Tomografia per emissió de positrons (PET); FDGBACKGROUND: The aim of our study is to describe the FDG-PET/CT findings in patients with tuberculosis and to correlate them with the patient's prognosis. METHODS: We retrospectively collected data from patients with tuberculosis, who had an FDG-PET/CT performed prior to treatment initiation from 2010 to 2015. RESULTS: Forty-seven out of 504 patients with active tuberculosis diagnosis (9.33%) underwent an FDG-PET/CT. The reasons for performing the FDG-PET/CT were: characterization of a pulmonary nodule (24; 51.1%), study of fever of unknown origin (12; 25.5%), study of lymph node enlargement (5; 10.6%) and others (6; 12.8%). Median age was 64 (IQR 50-74) years and 31 (66%) patients were male. Twenty-six (55.3%) patients had an immunosuppressant condition. According to the FDG-PET/CT, 48.6% of the patients had more than 1 organ affected and 46.8% had lymph node involvement. Median SUVmax of the main lesion was 5 (IQR 0.28-11.85). We found an association between the FDG accumulation and the size of the main lesion with a correlation coefficient of 0.54 (p<0.002). Patients with an unsuccessful outcome had a higher ratio SUVmax main lesion / SUVmean liver (1.92 vs 7.67, p<0.02). CONCLUSIONS: In our cohort, almost half of the patients had more than 1 organ affected and 46.8% of them had lymph node involvement. FDG uptake was associated with the size of the main lesion and seems to be related to the treatment outcome. The extent of its potential to be used as an early predictor of treatment success still needs to be defined

Cortical metabolic and structural differences in patients with chronic migraine. An exploratory 18FDG-PET and MRI study

Migranya crònica; Gruix cortical; NeuroimatgeMigraña crónica; Espesor cortical; NeuroimagenChronic migraine; Cortical thickness; NeuroimagingBackground To describe interictal brain structural and metabolic differences between patients with episodic migraine (EM), chronic migraine (CM) and healthy controls (HC). Methods This is an exploratory study including right-handed age-matched women with EM, CM and HC. On the same day, a sequential interictal scan was performed with 18FDG-PET and MRI. 3D T1-weighted images were segmented with FreeSurfer, normalized to a reference atlas and the mean values of metabolism, cortical thickness (CTh) and local gyrification index (IGI) were determined. Groups were compared using age-adjusted linear models, corrected for multiple comparisons. 18FDG-PET measurements between groups were also analysed adjusting by patient’s age, CTh and lGI. The variables independently associated with diagnosis were obtained using a logistic regression analysis. Results Fifteen patients (8 EM, 7 CM) and 11 HC were included. Morphometric data showed an increased CTh in 6 frontal areas (L/R-Caudal Middle Frontal, L/R-Rostral Middle Frontal, L-Medial Orbitofrontal and L-Superior Frontal) in CM patients compared to HC without differences for IGI. The structural adjusted analysis in CM showed a statistically significantly hypometabolism in 9 frontal areas (L-Lateral Orbitofrontal, L/R-Medial Orbitofrontal, L-Frontal Superior, R-Frontal pole, R-Parts Triangularis, L/R-Paracentral and R-Precentral) and 7 temporal areas (L/R-Insula, L/R-Inferior temporal, L/R-Temporal pole and R-Banks superior temporal sulcus) compared to HC. EM patients presented intermediate metabolic values ​​between EM and HC (non-significant). Conclusions CM patients showed frontotemporal hypometabolism and increased frontal cortical thickness when compared to HC that may explain some cognitive and behavioural pain-processing and sensory integration alterations in CM patients. Combined information from sequential or simultaneous PET and MRI could optimize the study of complex functional neurological disorders such as migraine.The project leading to these results has received funding The Headache Study Group Grant 2016 of Spanish Neurological Society and Mutual Medica Grant 2016 and “La Caixa” Foundation under the project code LCF/PR/PR16/151110005

The expression of HSP60 and HSP10 in large bowel carcinomas with lymph node metastase

BACKGROUND: The involvement of Heat Shock Proteins (HSP) in cancer development and progression is a widely debated topic. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the presence and expression of HSP60 and HSP10 in a series of large bowel carcinomas and locoregional lymph nodes with and without metastases. METHODS: 82 Astler and Coller's stage C2 colorectal cancers, of which 48 well-differentiated and 34 poorly-differentiated, were selected along with 661 lymph nodes, including 372 with metastases and 289 with reactive hyperplasia only, from the same tumours. Primitive tumours and both metastatic and reactive lymph nodes were studied; specifically, three different compartments of the lymph nodes, secondary follicle, paracortex and medullary sinus, were also analysed. An immunohistochemical research for HSP60 and HSP10 was performed and the semiquantitative results were analysed by statistical analysis to determine the correlation between HSPs expression and 1) tumour grading; 2) degree of inflammation; 3) number of lymph nodes involved; 4) lymph node compartment hyperplasia. Moreover, western blotting was performed on a smaller group of samples to confirm the immunohistochemical results. RESULTS: Our data show that the expression of HSP60, in both primary tumour and lymph node metastasis, is correlated with the tumoral grade, while the HSP10 expression is not. Nevertheless, the levels of HSP10 are commonly higher than the levels of HSP60. In addition, statistical analyses do not show any correlation between the degree of inflammation and the immunopositivity for both HSP60 and HSP10. Moreover, we find a significant correlation between the presence of lymph node metastases and the positivity for both HSP60 and HSP10. In particular, metastatic lymph nodes show a higher percentage of cells positive for both HSP60 and HSP10 in the secondary follicles, and for HSP10 in the medullary sinuses, when compared with hyperplastic lymph nodes. CONCLUSION: HSP60 and HSP10 may have diagnostic and prognostic significance in the management of this tumour and their overexpression in tumoral cells may be functionally related to tumoral progression. We hypothesise that their expression in follicular and medullary cells of lymph nodes may be induced by formation of metastases. Further studies based on these observations could lead to a better understanding of the HSPs involvement in colorectal cancer progression, as well as other neoplasms