Whole-body Bone Scintigraphy Research Articles

Role of nuclear medicine SPECTCT methods in the diagnosis of Urinary Tract Urothelial Cell Cancer

Nuclear medicine methods, with subsequent hybrid SPECT-CT images, are highly sensitive and specific visual methods that establish the functional status of the target organs, diagnose and stage pathological secondary lesions with increased mineral activity in bone and joint structures and determine the exact localization, anatomical structure and the corresponding morphological characteristics of the tumors localized in the lower and upper urinary tract. Urothelial carcinomas develop in the process of malignant transformation of cells of the transitional epithelium. Depending on their location, urothelial tumors are divided into those that develop in the lower urinary tract (bladder, urethra) and in the upper urinary tract (ureters and collecting system of both kidneys). Whole-body bone scintigraphy and dynamic nephroscintigraphy with subsequent targeted SPECT-CT studies are of great clinical importance in patients with these oncological localizations for the accurate diagnosis and staging of bone secondary lesions, for visualization of obstructive hydronephrosis and relative renal function, especially in high-risk patients Key words: urothelial carcinomas, SPECT-CT, dynamic nephroscintigraphy, bone scintigraphy

Atypical 99mTc-HMDP Distribution in a Patient with Poorly Differentiated Laryngeal Carcinoma: A Case of Paraneoplastic Hypercalcemia

A 55 years-old man underwent Whole-Body Computed Tomography (CT) in suspicion of laryngeal carcinoma. The CT highlighted a voluminous neck mass with epicenter in the epiglottic region and latero-cervical lymph-nodal involvement. To assess the presence of bone metastasis and to complete the staging, the patient underwent a whole-body bone scintigraphy with 99mTc- HMDP. At the time of the exam, a significant hypercalcemia was detected. The planar scan showed massive 99mTc-HMDP uptake in liver, lungs, heart and pancreas, compatible with the presence of microcalcifications. The laryngeal biopsy evidenced a squamous poorly differentiated laryngeal carcinoma, justifying the functional findings previously reported.

Multiclass classification of whole-body scintigraphic images using a self-defined convolutional neural network with attention modules.

PurposeA self‐defined convolutional neural network is developed to automatically classify whole‐body scintigraphic images of concern (i.e., the normal, metastasis, arthritis, and thyroid carcinoma), automatically detecting diseases with whole‐body bone scintigraphy.MethodsA set of parameter transformation operations are first used to augment the original dataset of whole‐body bone scintigraphic images. A hybrid attention mechanism including the spatial and channel attention module is then introduced to develop a deep classification network, Dscint, which consists of eight weight layers, one hybrid attention module, two normalization modules, two fully connected layers, and one softmax layer.ResultsExperimental evaluations conducted on a set of whole‐body scintigraphic images show that the proposed deep classification network, Dscint, performs well for automated detection of diseases by classifying the images of concerns, achieving the accuracy, precision, recall, specificity, and F‐1 score of 0.9801, 0.9795, 0.9791, 0.9933, and 0.9792, respectively, on the test data in the augmented dataset. A comparative analysis of Dscint and several classical deep classification networks (i.e., AlexNet, ResNet, VGGNet, DenseNet, and Inception‐v4) reveals that our self‐defined network, Dscint, performs best on classifying whole‐body scintigraphic images on the same dataset.ConclusionsThe self‐defined deep classification network, Dscint, can be utilized to automatically determine whether a whole‐body scintigraphic image is either normal or contains diseases of concern. Specifically, better performance of Dscint is obtained on images with lesions that are present in relatively fixed locations like thyroid carcinoma than those with lesions occurring in nonfixed locations of bone tissue.

Automatic identification of suspicious bone metastatic lesions in bone scintigraphy using convolutional neural network

BackgroundWe aimed to construct an artificial intelligence (AI) guided identification of suspicious bone metastatic lesions from the whole-body bone scintigraphy (WBS) images by convolutional neural networks (CNNs).MethodsWe retrospectively collected the 99mTc-MDP WBS images with confirmed bone lesions from 3352 patients with malignancy. 14,972 bone lesions were delineated manually by physicians and annotated as benign and malignant. The lesion-based differentiating performance of the proposed network was evaluated by fivefold cross validation, and compared with the other three popular CNN architectures for medical imaging. The average sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and the area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) were calculated. To delve the outcomes of this study, we conducted subgroup analyses, including lesion burden number and tumor type for the classifying ability of the CNN.ResultsIn the fivefold cross validation, our proposed network reached the best average accuracy (81.23%) in identifying suspicious bone lesions compared with InceptionV3 (80.61%), VGG16 (81.13%) and DenseNet169 (76.71%). Additionally, the CNN model's lesion-based average sensitivity and specificity were 81.30% and 81.14%, respectively. Based on the lesion burden numbers of each image, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was 0.847 in the few group (lesion number n ≤ 3), 0.838 in the medium group (n = 4–6), and 0.862 in the extensive group (n > 6). For the three major primary tumor types, the CNN-based lesion identifying AUC value was 0.870 for lung cancer, 0.900 for prostate cancer, and 0.899 for breast cancer.ConclusionThe CNN model suggests potential in identifying suspicious benign and malignant bone lesions from whole-body bone scintigraphic images.

Prognosis of patients with prostate cancer and bone metastasis from the Japanese Prostatic Cancer Registry of Standard Hormonal and Chemotherapy Using Bone Scan Index cohort study.

ObjectiveTo determine prognostic factors including the Bone Scan Index in prostate cancer patients receiving standard hormonal therapy and chemotherapy.MethodsThis multicenter Prostatic Cancer Registry of Standard Hormonal and Chemotherapy Using Bone Scan Index study involved 30 hospitals and enrolled 247 patients (age 71 ± 8 years) with metastatic hormone‐sensitive prostate cancer (n = 148) under hormone therapy and metastatic castration‐resistant prostate cancer (n = 99) under chemotherapy. The Bone Scan Index (%) was determined by whole‐body bone scintigraphy using 99mTc‐methylenediphosphonate. Patients were classified into tertiles and binary groups, and predictors of all‐cause death including Bone Scan Index, prostate‐specific antigen, and bone metabolic markers were determined using survival and proportional hazard analyses.ResultsDuring a mean follow‐up period of 716 ± 404 days, 81 (33%) of the patients died, and 3‐year mortality rates were 20% and 52% in the metastatic hormone‐sensitive prostate cancer and metastatic castration‐resistant prostate cancer groups, respectively. Survival analysis showed that a Bone Scan Index >3.5% was a significant determinant of death in the metastatic hormone‐sensitive prostate cancer group, whereas prostate‐specific antigen >55 ng/mL before chemotherapy was a determinant of prognosis in the metastatic castration‐resistant prostate cancer group. A Bone Scan Index >3.5% was also associated with a high incidence of prostate‐specific antigen progression in the metastatic hormone‐sensitive prostate cancer group. Patients with metastatic hormone‐sensitive prostate cancer and a better Bone Scan Index response (>45%) to treatment had lower mortality rates than those without such response.ConclusionThe Bone Scan Index and hot spot number are significant determinants of 3‐year mortality, and combining the Bone Scan Index with prostate‐specific antigen should contribute to the management of prostate cancer patients with bone metastasis.

Degeneration in the Zygapophysial Joint of the Fifth Lumbar Vertebra: The V-Shaped Sign Revealed by Bone Scintigraphy.

ObjectiveThe aim of the study was to explore the nature of a V-shaped sign in the backbone of the fifth lumbar vertebra revealed by whole-body bone scintigraphy (WBBS).MethodsA local single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scan plus a computed tomography (CT) scan were performed on 41 patients in our department who had a V-shaped sign in the backbone of the fifth lumbar vertebra detected by WBBS. Image fusion was conducted to understand the manifestations of the changes in the V-shaped sign in the CT images in WBBS and to determine the nature of the lesion.ResultsAll 41 patients presented with degenerative changes observed in the bilateral posterior zygapophysial joint of the fifth lumbar vertebra in the CT imaging bone window, bone hyperplasia of the articular process, joint surface hardening, and a joint gap. The vacuum sign could also be seen in some of these patients.ConclusionThe typical V-shaped sign in the posterior zygapophysial joint of the fifth lumbar vertebra revealed by WBBS suggests degenerative changes in the zygapophysial joint of the fifth lumbar vertebra.

A prospective phase 2/3 study of PSMA-targeted 18F-DCFPyL-PET/CT in patients (pts) with prostate cancer (PCa) (OSPREY): A sub-analysis of disease staging changes in PCa pts with recurrence or metastases on conventional imaging.

e17003 Background: Conventional imaging and bone scintigraphy are suboptimal modalities for identifying PCa. PSMA-based imaging is highly promising for PCa detection. 18F-DCFPyL is a novel PSMA-targeted radiopharmaceutical for positron emission tomography (PET) that may be useful in staging of PCa. The diagnostic performance, detection rate, and potential impact of 18F-DCFPyL on staging of pts with high-risk PCa have been previously reported. Here we report on the impact of 18F-DCFPyL on staging of pts with PCa recurrence or metastases on conventional imaging. Methods: 18F-DCFPyL-PET/CT was evaluated in 117 men with radiologic evidence of local recurrence or metastatic disease on baseline anatomical imaging (CT, MRI) or whole-body bone scintigraphy and in whom at least one lesion was deemed amenable to biopsy. A single dose of 9 mCi (333 MBq) of 18F-DCFPyL was administered via intravenous injection, followed by PET/CT acquisition 1 to 2 hours thereafter. Based on TNM staging: prostatic (T), pelvic LN (N), extra-pelvic LN (M1a), bone (M1b) and other visceral organs/soft tissue (M1c), 18F-DCFPyL-PET/CT detection rates including lesion counts were systematically analyzed. Three central, blinded, and independent readers evaluated the 18F-DCFPyL scans. Results: In this study, 82 (70%) patients had baseline radiographic M1 stage disease (14 patients with M1a, 50 patients with M1b, 18 patients with M1c) and 33 (28%) patients were M0 stage at baseline by central conventional imaging review; two patients were unevaluable. 18F-DCFPyL-PET/CT up-staged 58% (19/33) of pts from M0 to M1, of whom 91% (10/11) who underwent an extra-pelvic biopsy were confirmed to have M1 disease by pathology, including 9 patients with M1b and 1 patient with M1a. Of the patients who were staged M1 at baseline, 18F-DCFPyL-PET/CT upstaged 16% (10/64; M1a to M1b or M1c: n = 4; M1b to M1c: n = 6) of pts to a higher M1 sub-stage and down-staged 22% (18/82) to M0. Conclusions: 18F-DCFPyL-PET/CT identified M1 disease in the majority of patients examined who otherwise had locoregional disease. These data suggest that 18F-DCFPyL-PET/CT may be a useful tool in properly staging men with both metastatic and nonmetastatic relapsed disease, which could lead to superior treatment paradigms than currently exist using conventional imaging. Clinical trial information: NCT02981368.

Skip metastases in high-grade intramedullary appendicular osteosarcoma: an indicator of more aggressive disease?

To determine whether skip metastases (SM) in high-grade appendicular osteosarcoma (HG-OS) are an indicator of more aggressive disease. Retrospective review of patients with histologically confirmed diagnosis HG-OS of the long bones from 2007 to 2020, who had whole-bone MRI to identify SM. Data collected included patient age/gender, bone involved, the presence of SM, the presence of lung metastases from chest CT, the presence of distant bone metastases from whole-body bone scintigraphy or whole-body MRI, and chemotherapy response from resection specimen histology. The presence of lung or bone metastases and chemotherapy response were compared between patients without and with SM. The study included 241 patients (146 males; 95 females: mean age 18.2years; range 4-73years). Based on whole-bone MRI, 202 (83.8%) patients had no SM and 39 (16.2%) patients had a SM. Of patients without a SM, lung metastases were identified in 44 (22%) and distant bone metastases in 6 (3%) cases, while 80 (43%) had a good chemotherapy response and 105 (57%) had a poor chemotherapy response. Of patients with a SM, lung metastases were identified in 22 (58%) and distant bone metastases in 8 (21%) cases, while 11 (32%) had a good chemotherapy response and 23 (68%) had a poor chemotherapy response. The presence of SM was significantly associated with both lung metastases (p < 0.001) and skeletal metastases (p < 0.001), but not with chemotherapy response (p = 0.24). Patients with SM also had poorer survival (p < 0.001). The presence of SM in appendicular HG-OS suggests more aggressive disease.

Predictive value of standard serum markers for bone metastases in prostate cancer

BackgroundThe early detection of bone metastases is very important in prostate cancer follow-up. This study aimed to compare conventional tumor markers, namely free prostate-specific antigen (free PSA), total prostate-specific antigen (total PSA), free PSA/total PSA ratio, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) values, Gleason scores and 99 m Tc-MDP bone scintigraphy findings in the prediction of bone metastases in prostate cancer.MethodsIn total, 175 patients with prostate cancer who underwent whole-body bone scintigraphy were included in the study. All selected scintigraphic studies were reprocessed. Free PSA, total PSA, free PSA/total PSA ratio, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) values and Gleason scores of patients were recorded.ResultsThe results of our study show that the presence of bone metastasis correlates very weakly with free PSA/total PSA ratio (rho = 0.179), weakly with total PSA (rho = 0.318) and Gleason score (rho = 0.382), moderately with ALP (rho = 0.539), free PSA (0.416). Only ALP variable had a diagnostic value and ALP cutoff value was 76.50 IU/L, with 80% sensitivity and 82.1% specificity.ConclusionAccording to the results of our study; the free PSA, total PSA, free PSA/total PSA ratio and Gleason score values were not considered as a reliable parameter in the prostate cancer cases follow-up for bone metastasis development. Only ALP had a diagnostic value and ALP cutoff value was 76.50 IU / L with 80% sensitivity and 82.1% specificity in predicting bone metastases in prostate cancer.

Whole-body MR imaging in suspected physical child abuse: comparison with skeletal survey and bone scintigraphy findings from the PEDIMA prospective multicentre study.

To assess the contribution of whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (WBMRI) and bone scintigraphy (BS) in addition to skeletal survey (SS) in detecting traumatic bone lesions and soft-tissue injuries in suspected child abuse. In this prospective, multicentre, diagnostic accuracy study, children less than 3 years of age with suspected physical abuse were recruited. Each child underwent SS, BS and WBMRI. A blinded first review was performed in consensus by five paediatric radiologists and three nuclear medicine physicians. A second review investigated discrepancies reported between the modalities using a consensus result of all modalities as the reference standard. We calculated the sensitivity, specificity and corresponding 95% confidence interval for each imaging modality (SS, WBMRI and BS) and for the combinations [SS + WBMRI] and [SS + BS]. One hundred seventy children were included of which sixty-four had at least one lesion. In total, 146 lesions were included. The sensitivity and specificity of each examination were, respectively, as follows: 88.4% [95% CI, 82.0-93.1] and 99.7% [95% CI, 99.5-99.8] for the SS, 69.9% [95% CI, 61.7-77.2] and 99.5% [95% CI, 99.2-99.7] for WBMRI and 54.8% [95% CI, 46.4-63.0] and 99.7% [95% CI, 99.5-99.9] for BS. Sensitivity and specificity were, respectively, 95.9% [95% CI, 91.3-98.5] and 99.2% [95% CI, 98.9-99.4] for the combination SS + WBMRI and 95.2% [95% CI, 90.4-98.1] and 99.4% [95% CI, 99.2-99.6] for the combination SS + BS, with no statistically significant difference between them. SS was the most sensitive independent imaging modality; however, the additional combination of either WBMRI or BS examinations offered an increased accuracy. • SS in suspected infant abuse was the most sensitive independent imaging modality in this study, especially for detecting metaphyseal and rib lesions, and remains essential for evaluation. • The combination of either SS + BS or SS + WBMRI provides greater accuracy in diagnosing occult and equivocal bone injuries in the difficult setting of child abuse. • WBMRI is a free-radiation technique that allows additional diagnosis of soft-tissue and visceral injuries.

Object-oriented classification approach for bone metastasis mapping from whole-body bone scintigraphy.

Whole-body bone scintigraphy is the most widely used method for detecting bone metastases in advanced cancer. However, its interpretation depends on the experience of the radiologist. Some automatic interpretation systems have been developed in order to improve diagnostic accuracy. These systems are pixel-based and do not use spatial or textural information of groups of pixels, which could be very important for classifying images with better accuracy. This paper presents a fast method of object-oriented classification that facilitates easier interpretation of bone scintigraphy images. Nine whole-body images from patients suspected with bone metastases were analyzed in this preliminary study. First, an edge-based segmentation algorithm together with the full lambda-schedule algorithm were used to identify the object in the bone scintigraphy and the textural and spatial attributes of these objects were calculated. Then, a set of objects (224 objects, ~ 46% of the total objects) were selected as training data based on visual examination of the image, and were assigned to various levels of radionuclide accumulation before performing the data classification using both k-nearest-neighbor and support vector machine classifiers. The performance of the proposed method was evaluated using as metric the statistical parameters calculated from error matrix. The results revealed that the proposed object-oriented classification approach using either k-nearest-neighbor or support vector machine as classification methods performed well in detecting bone metastasis in terms of overall accuracy (86.62±2.163% and 86.81±2.137% respectively) and kappa coefficient (0.6395±0.0143 and 0.6481±0.0218 respectively). In conclusion, the described method provided encouraging results in mapping bone metastases in whole-body bone scintigraphy.

F-18 fluorocholine positron emission tomography- computed tomography in initial staging and recurrence evaluation of prostate carcinoma: A prospective comparative study with diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging and whole-body skeletal scintigraphy.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the major causes of death due to cancer in men. Conventional imaging modalities such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provide locoregional status, but fall short in identifying distant metastasis. C-11 choline F-18 fluorocholine (F-18 FCH) has been shown to be useful in imaging of PCa. The present prospective study evaluates and compares the role of F-18 FCH positron emission tomography–computed tomography (PET-CT) with locoregional MRI and whole-body bone scintigraphy in PCa patients for initial staging and recurrence evaluation. This study included a total of 50 patients. Tc-99m skeletal scintigraphy, F-18 FCH PET-CT, and diffusion-weighted MRI of the pelvic region were performed within a span of 2–3 weeks of each other, in random order. For the primary site, core biopsy findings of the lesion were considered as gold standard. The kappa test was used to measure agreement between bone scintigraphy, F-18 FCH, and MRI. For comparing Tc-99m bone scintigraphy, F-18 FCH, and MRI, McNemar's test was applied. F-18 FCH PET-CT and MRI were able to detect primary lesion in all initial staging patients. The sensitivity and specificity of F-18 FCH PET-CT versus MRI were found to be 92.8% versus 89.2% and 100 versus 80%, respectively, for the recurrence at the primary site. A total of 55 bony lesions at distant sites were detected on F-18 FCH PET-CT in comparison to 43 bone lesions on whole-body bone scintigraphy. F-18 FCH PET/CT also detected additional lung lesions in 2 patients and abdominal lymph nodes in 12 patients. F-18 FCH PET-CT could detect primary lesions, local metastasis, bone metastasis, and distant metastasis in a single study and is also a useful modality in recurrence evaluation in PCa patients.

Evaluation of whole-body modalities for diagnosis of multifocal osteonecrosis\u2014a pilot study

BackgroundThis study aimed to investigate the ability of whole-body bone scintigraphy (WB-BS) in the detection of multifocal osteonecrosis (ON) compared to whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (WB-MRI) and to clarify the characteristics of patients with multifocal ON among those with ON of the femoral head (ONFH) using WB-MRI.MethodsForty-six patients who had symptomatic ONFH and underwent surgery in our hospital from April 2019 to October 2020 were included in the study. Data on patient demographics, including age, sex, body mass index (BMI), history of corticosteroid intake, alcohol abuse, smoking, and symptomatic joints, were collected from their medical records. All patients underwent WB-MRI and WB-BS before surgery.ResultsThe agreement in the detection of ON by WB-MRI vs the uptake lesions by WB-BS in the hip joints was moderate (κ = 0.584), while that in other joints was low (κ < 0.40). Among the 152 joints with ON detected by WB-MRI, 92 joints (60.5%) were symptomatic, and 60 joints (39.5%) were asymptomatic. Twelve out of the 46 (26.0%) patients had multifocal (three or more distinct anatomical sites) ON. Nonetheless, while WB-BS detected symptomatic ON detected by WB-MRI as uptake lesions in 82.6% (76/92) of the joints, asymptomatic ON detected by WB-MRI was detected as uptake lesions in 21.7% (13/60) of the joints. All patients with multifocal ON had a history of steroid therapy, which was significantly higher than that in patients with oligofocal ON (P = 0.035). The patients with a hematologic disease had multifocal ON at a higher rate (P = 0.015).ConclusionsIt might be difficult for WB-BS to detect the asymptomatic ON detected by WB-MRI compared to symptomatic ON. Considering the cost, examination time, and radiation exposure, WB-MRI might be useful for evaluating multifocal ON. Larger longitudinal studies evaluating the benefits of WB-MRI for detecting the risk factors for multifocal ON are required.

A prospective phase II/III study of PSMA-targeted 18F-DCFPyL-PET/CT in patients (pts) with prostate cancer (PCa) (OSPREY): A subanalysis of disease staging changes in PCa pts with recurrence or metastases on conventional imaging.

32 Background: Conventional imaging and bone scintigraphy are suboptimal modalities for identifying PCa. PSMA-based imaging is highly promising for PCa detection. 18F-DCFPyL is a novel PSMA-targeted radiopharmaceutical for positron emission tomography (PET) that may be useful in staging of PCa. The diagnostic performance, detection rate, and potential impact of 18F-DCFPyL on staging of pts with high- risk PCa have been previously reported. Here we report on the impact of 18F-DCFPyL on staging of pts with PCa recurrence or metastases on conventional imaging. Methods: 18F-DCFPyL-PET/CT was evaluated in 117 men with radiologic evidence of local recurrence or metastatic disease on baseline anatomical imaging (CT, MRI) or whole-body bone scintigraphy and in whom at least one lesion was deemed amenable to biopsy. A single dose of 9 mCi (333 MBq) of 18F-DCFPyL was administered via intravenous injection, followed by PET/CT acquisition 1 to 2 hours thereafter. Based on TNM staging: prostatic (T), pelvic LN (N), extra-pelvic LN (M1a), bone (M1b) and other visceral organs/soft tissue (M1c), 18F-DCFPyL-PET/CT detection rates including lesion counts were systematically analyzed. Three central, blinded, and independent readers evaluated the 18F-DCFPyL scans. Results: In this study, 82 (70%) patients had baseline radiographic M1 stage disease (14 patients with M1a, 50 patients with M1b, 18 patients with M1c) and 33 (28%) patients were M0 stage at baseline by central conventional imaging review; two patients were unevaluable. 18F-DCFPyL-PET/CT up-staged 58% (19/33) of pts from M0 to M1, of whom 91% (10/11) who underwent an extra-pelvic biopsy were confirmed to have M1 disease by pathology, including 9 patients with M1b and 1 patient with M1a. Of the patients who were staged M1 at baseline, 18F-DCFPyL-PET/CT upstaged 16% (10/64; M1a to M1b or M1c: n = 4; M1b to M1c: n = 6) of pts to a higher M1 sub-stage and down-staged 22% (18/82) to M0. Conclusions: 18F-DCFPyL-PET/CT identified M1 disease in the majority of patients examined who otherwise had locoregional disease. These data suggest that 18F-DCFPyL-PET/CT may be a useful tool in properly staging men with both metastatic and nonmetastatic relapsed disease, which could lead to superior treatment paradigms than currently exist using conventional imaging. Clinical trial information: NCT02981368.

Cerebellar ataxia and exercise intolerance in Erdheim-Chester disease

BackgroundErdheim-Chester disease (ECD), a rare disorder of monocyte/macrophage lineage, has been related to cerebellar dysfunction. To increase the awareness of this rare, protean disease, an unusual, myasthenia-like onset of ECD is reported.Case presentationA 42-year-old man presented with a 6-year history of mild evening fatigability in his four limbs followed by motor and cognitive symptoms associated with cerebellar atrophy, dentate nuclei and dentato-thalamic pathway degeneration. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed hyperintense signals in T2 and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery sequences within the pons, cerebellar white matter, dentate nuclei and globi pallidi in the absence of any contrast enhancement. Whole-body bone scintigraphy with 99Technetium - methylene diphosphonate and fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography both revealed symmetric uptake in the lower extremities a finding suggestive of a diagnosis of ECD. Histological examination revealed diffuse infiltration of CD 68+ histiocytes with foamy cytoplasms in the presence of B-type of Rapidly Accelerated Fibrosarcoma protein kinase (BRAF)V600E activating mutation in tumor cells.ConclusionIn patients with myasthenia-like symptoms who test negatively for myasthenia gravis, neurodegenerative diseases, and disorders of the hypothalamus, a diagnosis of ECD should be taken into consideration.

Comparison of whole-body bone scintigraphy with axial skeleton magnetic resonance imaging in the skeletal evaluation of carcinoma prostate.

Introduction:Whole-body bone scintigraphy (WBBS) is considered to be the standard of care in the initial skeletal evaluation of patients with carcinoma prostate. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a potential alternative technique for detecting bone metastasis. The objective of this study was to compare the diagnostic performance of WBBS with a single-photon emission computed tomography–computed tomography (SPECT-CT) correlation of the suspicious WBBS lesions to the axial skeleton (AS)-MRI in diagnosing bone metastasis in patients with carcinoma prostate.Methods:WBBS and AS-MRI were both performed during the initial skeletal evaluation in 35 patients of carcinoma prostate with the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in the range of 10–50 ng/ml. Suspicious lesions on the WBBS were correlated on SPECT CT. The presence or absence of metastasis was determined by best valuable comparator. The validity parameters of WBBS and AS-MRI were computed and compared.Results:The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of WBBS and AS-MRI for detecting patients with bone metastasis were 55.6%, 88.5%, 62.5%, 85.2% and 100.0%, 96.2%, 90.0%, 100%, respectively. The kappa value and the accuracy of WBBS were 0.457 and 80.0%, respectively. The kappa value and accuracy of AS-MRI were 0.928 and 97.1%, respectively.Conclusions:The diagnostic performance of AS-MRI in detecting patients with bone metastasis due to carcinoma prostate is superior to that of WBBS with SPECT-CT correlation of the suspicious lesions in the PSA range of 10–50 ng/ml.

Higher Interrater Agreement of FDG-PET/CT than Bone Scintigraphy in Diagnosing Bone Recurrent Breast Cancer.

The purpose was to investigate the interrater agreement of FDG-PET/CT and bone scintigraphy for diagnosing bone recurrence in breast cancer patients. A total of 100 women with suspected recurrence of breast cancer underwent planar whole-body bone scintigraphy with [99mTc]DPD and FDG-PET/CT. Scans were evaluated independently by experienced nuclear medicine physicians and the results for one modality were blinded to the other. Images were visually interpreted using a 4-point assessment scale (0 = no metastases, 1 = probably no metastases, 2 = probably metastases, 3 = definite metastases). Out of 100 women, 22 (22%) were verified with distant recurrence, 18 of these had bone involvement. The proportions of agreement between readers were 93% (86.3–96.6) for bone recurrence with FDG-PET/CT and 47% (37.5–56.7) for bone recurrence with planar bone scintigraphy. The strengths of agreement between readers for diagnosing bone recurrence was ‘almost perfect’ with FDG-PET/CT and was ‘fair’ with planar bone scintigraphy according to Cohen’s kappa value of 0.82 (0.70–0.95) and 0.28 (0.18–0.39), respectively. Interrater agreement yielded improved reproducibility with FDG-PET/CT versus with bone scintigraphy when diagnosing recurrence with bone metastasis in this patient cohort.

Spinal osteoblastoma: a retrospective study of 35 patients\u2019 imaging findings with an emphasis on MRI

ObjectiveTo investigate the values of multimodal imaging approaches in the diagnosis of spinal osteoblastomas with an emphasis on MRI findings.Materials and methodsWe retrospectively evaluated the imaging findings of 35 patients with spinal osteoblastomas. The imaging methods included radiography, whole-body bone scintigraphy (WBBS), CT and MRI.ResultsRadiography detected 87.1% (27/31) of the lesions; WBBS demonstrated increased radionuclide activity in all the lesions. CT could precisely show and localize all niduses, and calcification was always detected. MRI usually could adequately delineate the niduses of osteoblastomas, especially on T2WI (88.2%; 30/34). 71.9% (23/32) of osteoblastomas were surrounded with moderate or extensive bone marrow edema (BME) with soft tissue edema (STE). STE always extended along the muscle bundle adjacent to the lesion; there was no subcutaneous fat involvement. BME was eccentrically distributed in the vertebral body and spread inward from the sides of the nidus. The extent of BME in the vertebral body tended to be inversely proportional to the distance from the nidus. In addition, rare magnifications of osteoblastoma including multifocal diseases (n = 2), vertebra plana (n = 1) or with aneurysmal bone cysts (n = 6) were also observed in our study.ConclusionsIn patients showing moderate or extensive BME together with STE on MRI, both CT and MRI should be used to confirm nidus presence. The above-mentioned characteristics of edema on MRI of patients with spinal osteoblastoma are helpful in not only localizing the nidus, but also enhancing the diagnostic confidence.

Comparison of Whole-Body MRI, CT, and Bone Scintigraphy for Response Evaluation of Cancer Therapeutics in Metastatic Breast Cancer to Bone

Background CT and bone scintigraphy have limitations in evaluating systemic anticancer therapy (SACT) response in bone metastases from metastatic breast cancer (MBC). Purpose To evaluate whether whole-body MRI enables identification of progressive disease (PD) earlier than CT and bone scintigraphy in bone-only MBC. Materials and Methods This prospective study evaluated participants with bone-only MBC between May 2016 and January 2019 (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03266744). Participants were enrolled at initiation of first or subsequent SACT based on standard CT and bone scintigraphy imaging. Baseline whole-body MRI was performed within 2 weeks of entry; those with extraosseous disease were excluded. CT and whole-body MRI were performed every 12 weeks until definitive PD was evident with one or both modalities. In case of PD, bone scintigraphy was used to assess for bone disease progression. Radiologists independently interpreted images from CT, whole-body MRI, or bone scintigraphy and were blinded to results with the other modalities. Systematic differences in performance between modalities were analyzed by using the McNemar test. Results Forty-five participants (mean age, 60 years ± 13 [standard deviation]; all women) were evaluated. Median time on study was 36 weeks (range, 1-120 weeks). Two participants were excluded because of unequivocal evidence of liver metastases at baseline whole-body MRI, two participants were excluded because they had clinical progression before imaging showed PD, and one participant was lost to follow-up. Of the 33 participants with PD at imaging, 67% (22 participants) had PD evident at whole-body MRI only and 33% (11 participants) had PD at CT and whole-body MRI concurrently; none had PD at CT only (P < .001, McNemar test). There was only slight agreement between whole-body MRI and CT (Cohen κ, 0.15). PD at bone scintigraphy was reported in 50% of participants (13 of 26) with bone progression at CT and/or whole-body MRI (P < .001, McNemar test). Conclusion Whole-body MRI enabled identification of progressive disease before CT in most participants with bone-only metastatic breast cancer. Progressive disease at bone scintigraphy was evident in only half of participants with bone progression at whole-body MRI. © RSNA, 2020 Online supplemental material is available for this article.

The utility of a deep learning-based algorithm for bone scintigraphy in patient with prostate cancer

Bone scintigraphy has often been used to evaluate bone metastases. Its functionality is evident in detecting bone metastasis in patients with malignant tumor including prostate cancer, as appropriate treatment and prognosis are dependent on the presence and degree of bone metastasis. The development of a deep learning-based algorithm in the field of information processing has been remarkable in recent years. We hypothesized that a deep learning-based algorithm is useful in diagnosing osseous metastases in patients with prostate cancer using bone scintigraphy. Thus, this study aims to examine the utility of deep learning-based algorithm in detecting bone metastases in patients with prostate cancer, as compared with nuclear medicine specialists. In total, 139 serial patients with prostate cancer, who underwent whole-body bone scintigraphy, were enrolled in this study. Each scintigraphy examination was evaluated visually and independently by nuclear medicine specialists; this was also analyzed using a deep learning-based algorithm. The number of abnormal uptakes was assessed by the nuclear medicine specialists and with a software which used the deep learning-based algorithm, and the per-patient detection rate and the per-region detection rate were then calculated. The software automatically analyzed bone scintigraphy for the presence or absence of osseous metastasis in individual patients, for the 12 body regions. The detection rates analyzed separately by the nuclear medicine specialists and using the software were then compared. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy by the specialist and with the software were calculated. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy by the nuclear medicine specialists were 100%, 94.9% and 97.1%. On the other hand, they with the software were 91.7%, 87.3% and 89.2%. No statistically significant difference was determined between the per-patient detection rates assessed by the specialists versus the software. In regional assessment, there was also no statistically significant difference between most of the per-region detection rates (10 of 12 regions) by the specialists versus the results obtained by the software. The software with the deep learning-based algorithm might be used as diagnostic aid in the evaluation of bone metastases for prostate cancer patients.