Prevalence of Corneal Astigmatism before Cataract Surgery in Yazd Province, Iran

Purpose: To analyze the prevalence and presentation patterns of corneal astigmatism in cataract surgery candidates in Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.Patients and Methods: Refractive and keratometric values from 400 eyes of 365 patients were measured before surgery in patients having cataract extraction. Descriptive statistics of refractive and keratometric cylinder data were analyzed and correlated by age ranges.Results: Our data showed that 22.8% of patients had less than 1D of corneal astigmatism,12.9% had 1-1.5D, 21% had 1.5-2D and 9.3% had more than 2D of corneal astigmatism, so among all of the patients, astigmatism of 0.0 to 1.00D was the most common cylinder value (22.8%).Conclusion: Our study showed that 43.2% of preoperative cataract surgery eyes in Yazd have a corneal astigmatism of 1.0D or more, indicating that better surgical techniques or using Toric IOLs are needed to achieve better visual rehabilitation

Cataract Risk Factors in Yazd Province, Iran

Purpose: to determine the probable cataract risk factors in Yazd province, Iran.Patients and Methods: In this cross-sectional study all patients over 40 years old undergoing cataract surgery in Shahid Sadoughi hospital, Yazd, Iran, from January to September 2016 were evaluated. A checklist was filled for all patients including information about their sex, age, weight, height, place of living (city or village), being native or non-native of Yazd, type of job, the level of household income, level of education, smoking habits, drug usage, as well as a history of related diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, glaucoma, rheumatism, kidney, and heart diseases. Results: Two hundred and fifty four patients (45.8%) had income of less than 6,000,000 Rials per month, 270 (48.6%) had income of between 6000000 and 10,000,000 Rials per month and the rest of patients (5.6%) had an income of over 10,000,000 Rials per month. Regarding the education level 512 patients (92.3%) had less than high school diploma, 38 (6.8%) had high school diploma and 5 patients had university education. Eighteen patients (3.2%) had a history of glaucoma. From 437 patients who their BMI was recorded 4.8% had a BMI of under 18, 49.7% had a BMI of between 18 and 25 and 45.5% had a BMI of over 25. Conclusion: Our study suggests a relationship between the income land education level as well as BMI and the prevalence of cataract among patients in Yazd province, Iran. Future case control trials, with higher number of participants, are recommended.Keywords: Cataract; risk factor; Yazd; Iran

Laser in Situ Keratomileusis Outcomes among Myopic and Myopic Astigmatism Patients with Thin Cornea

Purpose:To evaluate refractive results after laser in situ keratomileusis among patients with thin corneas.Patients and Methods: Three hundred and two eyes from 168 patients with thin corneas undergoing laser in situ keratomileusis in Basir Eye Clinic, Tehran, Iran, were retrospectively studied. We included patients with best corrected visual acuity of better than 6/12, age of more than 18 years, and corneal thickness of less than 499 μm.Results: The mean age of patients was 30.7 ± 8.6 years and the mean preoperative spherical equivalent was - 4.61 ± 2.37 D. The results after at least one year of follow-up were as follow: 86.6 % of patients with low myopia, 71.8 % of patients with mild myopia, 50.0 % of patients with moderate myopia and 51.8 % of patients with high myopia achieved a ± 0.5 D spherical equivalent postoperatively. General linear model indicated a significant effect for the remaining stromal bed on final uncorrected visual acuity after adjustment for age, sex, and degree of myopia. No important complication occurred.Conclusion: No important complications occurred after laser in situ keratomileusis among myopic patients with corneal thickness of less than 499 μm, and most of the patients achieved satisfactory refractive results.Keywords: Laser in Situ Keratomileusis; outcome; myopia; thin cornea; Iran

Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma of the lip successfully treated with Rhenium-188 brachytherapy

Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is the second most common form of skin cancer. In most cases, non-invasive SCC has a good prognosis and is curable by surgical resection. Nevertheless, a small percentage of patients pose specific management problems due to the technical difficulty of maintaining function and aesthetics because of the size or location of the tumor. An emerging therapeutic approach with high-dose brachytherapy using a nonsealed Rhenium-188 resin, commercially known as Rhenium-SCT®, has shown to be highly effective in non-invasive carcinoma, up to a thickness of 2-3 mm

Mesenteric panniculitis presenting with acute non-occlusive colonic ischemia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The role of positron emission tomography (PET) of the mesentery as a diagnostic modality in cases of mesenteric panniculitis is unclear.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 67-year-old woman presented with rectal bleeding due to nonocclusive colonic ischemia. Abdominal CT showed features of mesenteric panniculitis. PET-CT demonstrated no abnormal fluorine-18 fluordeoxyglucose uptake in the affected mesentery or any surrounding lymph nodes. Laparoscopic biopsies from a thickened segment of mesenteric fat excluded neoplastic infiltration.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In cases of unexplained ischemic colitis, panniculitis should be considered a possible diagnosis. PET-CT may be negative for fluorine-18 fluordeoxyglucose uptake in this condition. As of known false-negative PET-CT results in mesenteric panniculitis, PET-CT has a limited role in the diagnostic work-up.</p

Ausbildung in Nuklearmedizin und Zukunftsperspektiven.

peer reviewe

NSCLC Biomarkers to Predict Response to Immunotherapy with Checkpoint Inhibitors (ICI): From the Cells to In Vivo Images

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Lung cancer and in particular non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains the leading cause of cancer-related death. The development of new therapeutic approaches, including immunotherapy, has led to substantial improvement in survival time and quality of life. However, the clinical benefit of immunotherapy-based strategies is still limited to a minority of patients, reflecting the need to identify predictive biomarkers of response, which are any substance, structure, or process or its products that can be measured in the body and that can influence or predict clinical response. In this work, we provide an overview of the approved and the most promising investigational biomarkers, which have been assessed in vitro/ex vivo and in vivo, to identify patients who could benefit the most from immunotherapy-based treatment. ABSTRACT: Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related death, and it is usually diagnosed in advanced stages (stage III or IV). Recently, the availability of targeted strategies and of immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) has favorably changed patient prognosis. Treatment outcome is closely related to tumor biology and interaction with the tumor immune microenvironment (TME). While the response in molecular targeted therapies relies on the presence of specific genetic alterations in tumor cells, accurate ICI biomarkers of response are lacking, and clinical outcome likely depends on multiple factors that are both host and tumor-related. This paper is an overview of the ongoing research on predictive factors both from in vitro/ex vivo analysis (ranging from conventional pathology to molecular biology) and in vivo analysis, where molecular imaging is showing an exponential growth and use due to technological advancements and to the new bioinformatics approaches applied to image analyses that allow the recovery of specific features in specific tumor subclones

11C-choline vs. 18F-FDG PET/CT in assessing bone involvement in patients with multiple myeloma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Multiple Myeloma (MM) is a B cell neoplasm causing lytic or osteopenic bone abnormalities. Whole body skeletal survey (WBSS), Magnetic resonance (MR) and ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT are imaging techniques routinely used for the evaluation of bone involvement in MM patients.</p> <p>Aim</p> <p>As MM bone lesions may present low ¹⁸F-FDG uptake; the aim of this study was to assess the possible added value and limitations of ¹¹C-Choline to that of ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT in patients affected with MM.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Ten patients affected with MM underwent a standard ¹¹C-Choline PET/CT and an ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT within one week. The results of the two scans were compared in terms of number, sites and SUV_maxof lesions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Four patients (40%) had a negative concordant ¹¹C-Choline and ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT scans. Two patients (20%) had a positive ¹¹C-Choline and ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT scans that identified the same number and sites of bone lesions. The remaining four patients (40%) had a positive ¹¹C-Choline and ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT scan, but the two exams identified different number of lesions. Choline showed a mean SUV_maxof 5 while FDG showed a mean SUV_maxof 3.8 (P = 0.042). Overall, ¹¹C-Choline PET/CT scans detected 37 bone lesions and ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT scans detected 22 bone lesions but the difference was not significant (P = 0.8).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>According to these preliminary data, ¹¹C-Choline PET/CT appears to be more sensitive than ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT for the detection of bony myelomatous lesions. If these data are confirmed in larger series of patients, ¹¹C-Choline may be considered a more appropriate functional imaging in association with MRI for MM bone staging.</p

Radiomics and artificial intelligence in prostate cancer: new tools for molecular hybrid imaging and theragnostics

In prostate cancer (PCa), the use of new radiopharmaceuticals has improved the accuracy of diagnosis and staging, refined surveillance strategies, and introduced specific and personalized radioreceptor therapies. Nuclear medicine, therefore, holds great promise for improving the quality of life of PCa patients, through managing and processing a vast amount of molecular imaging data and beyond, using a multi-omics approach and improving patients' risk-stratification for tailored medicine. Artificial intelligence (AI) and radiomics may allow clinicians to improve the overall efficiency and accuracy of using these "big data" in both the diagnostic and theragnostic field: from technical aspects (such as semi-automatization of tumor segmentation, image reconstruction, and interpretation) to clinical outcomes, improving a deeper understanding of the molecular environment of PCa, refining personalized treatment strategies, and increasing the ability to predict the outcome. This systematic review aims to describe the current literature on AI and radiomics applied to molecular imaging of prostate cancer

Histological verification of positive positron emission tomography findings in the follow-up of patients with mediastinal lymphoma.

Background and Objectives Follow-ups of patients with mediastinal lymphoma are not accurate if they rely on computed tomography (CT). Positron emission tomography (PET) has been suggested to be useful in several lymphoma settings, such as initial staging, evaluation of residual masses after therapy, and assessment of response early in the course of treatment. The aim of this retrospective study was to verify the reliability of positive PET scans of the mediastinum in following up patients wirh mediastinal lymphoma, using histological findings as a comparison. Design and Methods From January 2002 to July 2005, 151 patients with mediastinal lymphoma (57 with Hodgkin's disease [HD] and 94 with aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma [NHL]) were followed-up after the end of front-line treatment. Patients with a positive PET scan of the mediastinum underwent CT scanning and surgical biopsy. Results In 30 (21 HD and 9 NHL) out of 151 patients (20%) a suspicion of lymphoma relapse was raised based on positive mediastinal PET scanning. Histology confirmed this suspicion in 17 (10 HD and 7 NHL) out of 30 patients (57%), whereas either benign (9 fibrosis, 3 sarcoid-like granulomatosis) or unrelated neoplastic conditions (1 thymoma) were demonstrated in the remaining 13 patients (43%). SUVmax was significantly higher among patients who had signs of relapse (17 true positive cases) than among those who stayed in remission (13 false positive cases), the median values being 5.95 (range, 3.5–26.9) and 2.90 (range, 1.4–3.3), respectively ( p =0.01). Interpretation and Conclusions We suggest that a positive PET scan of the mediastinum of a patient being followed-up for a mediastinal lymphoma should not be considered sufficient for diagnostic purposes in view of its lack of discrimination. Histological confirmation can safely be carried out with various biopsy techniques, the choice of which should be made on the basis of the findings of the clinical and imaging studies of the individual case