PET with the glucose analog (18)F-FDG is increasingly used to monitor tumor response in patients undergoing chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy. Numerous studies have shown that (18)F-FDG PET is an accurate test for differentiating residual viable tumor tissue from therapy-induced fibrosis. Furthermore, quantitative assessment of therapy-induced changes in tumor (18)F-FDG uptake may allow the pr...

UNLABELLED For (18)F-FDG PET to be widely used to monitor atherosclerosis progression and therapeutic response, it is crucial to better understand how macrophage glucose metabolism is influenced by the atherosclerotic microenvironment and to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of this response. Oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) is a key player in atherosclerotic inflammation that promotes...

Introduction: Rotator cuff tear is one of the most common causes of shoulder pain and disability. It has been known that there are two groups of patients: those with symptomatic rotator cuff tears and those with asymptomatic ones. To date, the difference between symptomatic and asymptomatic patients has not been fully clarified yet. Recently, muscle activity during exercise was successfully exa...

A 93-year-old woman presented with a 3 ¥ 3 cm ulcerous lesion on the lateral side of her right lower leg. Biopsy confirmed the diagnosis of malignant melanoma. PET/CT imaging was performed for staging of this high risk melanoma patient. The plasma glucose level of the patient was 93 mg/dl before the tracer injection. PET/CT whole-body imaging was performed at 120 minutes after the intravenous i...

In patients with chronic coronary artery disease and left ventricular dysfunction, the distinction between ventricular dysfunction arising from myocardial fibrosis and ischemic, but viable, myocardium has important clinical implications. By positron emission tomography (PET), enhanced fluorine-18-labeled fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake in myocardial segments with impaired function and reduced b...

BACKGROUND The BRAF inhibitor, vemurafenib, has recently been approved for the treatment of metastatic melanoma in patients harboring BRAFV600 mutations. Currently, dual BRAF and MEK inhibition are ongoing in clinical trials with the goal of overcoming the acquired resistance that has unfortunately developed in some vemurafenib patients. FDG-PET measures of metabolic activity are increasingly e...

PURPOSE The mechanisms underlying the sensitivity of non-small cell lung cancer to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) kinase inhibitors are complex, and there are no established markers to accurately predict treatment outcome in individual patients. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN We investigated whether tumors responding to EGFR inhibitors can be identified by measuring treatment-induced changes in...

BACKGROUND Coronary atherosclerosis and its thrombotic complications are the major cause of mortality and morbidity throughout the industrialized world. Thrombosis on disrupted atherosclerotic plaques plays a key role in the onset of acute coronary syndromes. Macrophages density is one of the most critical compositions of plaque in both plaque vulnerability and thrombogenicity upon rupture. It ...

Objective(s): In this study, we aimed to describe the characteristics of portal vein tumor thrombosis (PVTT), complicating hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in contrast-enhanced FDG PET/CT scan. Methods: In this retrospective study, 9 HCC patients with FDG-avid PVTT were diagnosed by contrast-enhanced fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG PET/CT), which is a comb...