Hypoxia is a major cause of radioresistance in head and neck cancer (HNC), resulting in treatment failure and disease recurrence. F-fluoromisonidazole [F]FMISO PET has been proposed as a means of localising intratumoural hypoxia in HNC so that radiotherapy can be specifically escalated in hypoxic regions. This concept may not be deliverable in routine clinical practice, however, given that [F]FMISO PET is costly, time consuming and difficult to access. The aim of this review was to summarise clinical studies involving [F]FMISO PET to ascertain whether it can be used to guide radiotherapy treatment in HNC.

Copper-mediated radiofluorination (CMRF) is emerging as the method of choice for the formation of aromatic C-F bonds. This minireview examines proof-of-concept, pre-clinical, and in-human imaging studies of new and established imaging agents containing aromatic C-F bonds synthesized with CMRF. An exhaustive discussion of CMRF methods is not provided, although key developments that have enabled or improved upon the syntheses of fluorine-18 imaging agents are discussed.

In this pictorial essay, we illustrate the ultrasound appearance of COVID-19 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine-related lymph node abnormalities, which can occur at different stations ipsilateral to the site of vaccination, after either first or second vaccine dose and can represent a diagnostic dilemma when encountered in patients with underlying conditions. Typically, they appear as enlarged hypoechoic nodes with loss of fat hilum, increased hilar and cortical vascularization at color-Doppler, but low to intermediate cortical consistence at shear-wave elastography. Asymmetric or diffuse cortical thickening is also frequently encountered. They can be observed in patients without and with clinical symptoms, such as armpit pain, fever and fatigue.

The aim of this mini-review was to summarize the role of positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) with Fluorine-fluorodeoxyglucose ([F]FDG) in inflammatory and infective processes, based on the published scientific evidence.

The diagnosis, severity and extent of a sterile inflammation or a septic infection could be challenging since there is not one single test able to achieve an accurate diagnosis. The clinical use of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose ([F]FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) imaging in the assessment of inflammation and infection is increasing worldwide. The purpose of this paper is to achieve an Italian consensus document on [F]FDG PET/CT or PET/MRI in inflammatory and infectious diseases, such as osteomyelitis (OM), prosthetic joint infections (PJI), infective endocarditis (IE), prosthetic valve endocarditis (PVE), cardiac implantable electronic device infections (CIEDI), systemic and cardiac sarcoidosis (SS/CS), diabetic foot (DF), fungal infections (FI), tuberculosis (TBC), fever and inflammation of unknown origin (FUO/IUO), pediatric infections (PI), inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), spine infections (SI), vascular graft infections (VGI), large vessel vasculitis (LVV), retroperitoneal fibrosis (RF) and COVID-19 infections.

As COVID-19 was uncovered, it became evident that specific individuals could experience multi-organ complications for quite a while after infection. Among them, there were several cardiovascular complications. Myocardial perfusion imaging single photon emission computed tomography (MPI SPECT) can be utilized to detect and evaluate cardiac problems regardless of whether COVID caused them. By examining all publications relevant to the impacts of the pandemic on SPECT MPI imaging, we aimed to understand how the COVID pandemic affected different aspects of the MPI, how intense these effects were, and what the consequences were.

To identify and evaluate the indexed studies that allow us to understand the implications of imaging studies in MRI and PET/CT related to COVID-19 research.

Chest computed tomography (CT) is a high-sensitivity diagnostic tool for depicting interstitial pneumonia and may lay a critical role in the evaluation of the severity and extent of pulmonary involvement. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the association of chest CT severity score (CT-SS) with the mortality of COVID-19 patients using systematic review and meta-analysis.

Precise staging is needed to plan optimal management in breast cancer. 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography coupled with computed tomography (FDG-PET/CT) offers high sensitivity in detecting extra axillary lymph nodes and distant metastases. This review aims to clarify in which groups of patients staging with FDG-PET/CT would be beneficial and should be offered. We also discuss how tumor biology and breast cancer subtypes should be taken into account when interpreting FDG-PET/CT scans.

During the last decade, [18F]F-choline positron emission tomography (PET) had a rising role in prostate cancer (PCa) imaging. However, despite auspicious premises, [18F]F-choline PET is not currently recommended for the evaluation of response to therapy assessment in PCa, mainly due to the lack of large-scale prospective trials.

Following the Covid-19 pandemic spread, changes in clinical practice were necessary to limit the pandemic diffusion. Also, oncological practice has undergone changes with radiotherapy (RT) treatments playing a key role.Although several experiences have been published, the aim of this review is to summarize the current evidence after 2 years of pandemic to provide useful conclusions for clinicians.

SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) vaccination numbers are globally increasing. Therefore, an increased chance exists that patients undergoing Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy (PRRT) or diagnostic radionuclide imaging for Neuroendocrine Tumours (NETs) may have recently received vaccination. We report the imaging findings of two NETs patients, A-following [Lu] Lu-DOTATATE PRRT post therapy planar scintigraphy and single photon emission computed tomography with computed tomography (SPECT/CT), and B-following [ Ga]Ga-DOTA-NOC positron emission tomography with computed tomography (PET/CT) respectively. Both studies were done few days after COVID-19 vaccination. Patient A showed a new focus of uptake in the left deltoid muscle; and Patient B showed uptake in the left deltoid and a left axillary lymph node. Nuclear Physicians need to be aware of pitfalls with somatostatin receptor radionuclide imaging post-vaccination to ensure accurate interpretation, as well as dosimetric considerations with vaccine-related post-therapy uptake.

The present paper aims to systematically review the literature on COVID-19 vaccine-related findings in patients undergoing PET/CT.

The application of contrast and tracing agents is essential for lung imaging, as indicated by the wide use in recent decades and the discovery of various new contrast and tracing agents. Different aerosol production and pulmonary administration methods have been developed to improve lung imaging quality. This review details and discusses the ideal characteristics of aerosol administered via pulmonary delivery for lung imaging and the methods for the production and pulmonary administration of dry or liquid aerosol.

A growing number of publications have paid close attention to the chest computed tomography (CT) detection of COVID-19 with inconsistent diagnostic accuracy, the present meta-analysis assessed the available evidence regarding the overall performance of chest CT for COVID-19.

We report the findings of four critically ill patients who underwent an [F]FDG-PET/CT because of persistent inflammation during the late phase of their COVID-19.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a grade IV brain tumour with very low life expectancy. Physicians and oncologists urgently require automated techniques in clinics for brain tumour segmentation (BTS) and survival prediction (SP) of GBM patients to perform precise surgery followed by chemotherapy treatment.

The American College of Radiology (ACR) defines "actionable findings" the ones requiring a special communication between radiologists and referring clinicians, suggesting to organize their categorization in a three-degree scale on the basis of the risk for the patient to develop complications. These cases may fall in a grey-zone communication between different care figures with the risk of being underestimated or even not being considered at all. In this paper, our aim is to adapt the ACR categorization to the most frequent actionable findings encountered when reporting PET/CT images in a Nuclear Medicine Department, describing the most frequent and relevant imaging features and presenting the modalities of communication and the related clinical interventions that can be modulated by the prognostic severity of the clinical cases.