Computed tomography and nuclear medicine for the assessment of coronary inflammation: clinical applications and perspectives.

There is increasing evidence that in patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) under optimal medical therapy, a persisting dysregulation of the lipid and glucose metabolism, associated with adipose tissue dysfunction and inflammation, predicts a substantial residual risk of disease progression and cardiovascular events. Despite the inflammatory nature of ASCVD, circulating biomarkers such as high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and interleukins may lack specificity for vascular inflammation. As known, dysfunctional epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) and pericoronary adipose tissue (PCAT) produce pro-inflammatory mediators and promote cellular tissue infiltration triggering further pro-inflammatory mechanisms. The consequent tissue modifications determine the attenuation of PCAT as assessed and measured by coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA). Recently, relevant studies have demonstrated a correlation between EAT and PCAT and obstructive coronary artery disease, inflammatory plaque status and coronary flow reserve (CFR). In parallel, CFR is well recognized as a marker of coronary vasomotor function that incorporates the haemodynamic effects of epicardial, diffuse and small-vessel disease on myocardial tissue perfusion. An inverse relationship between EAT volume and coronary vascular function and the association of PCAT attenuation and impaired CFR have already been reported. Moreover, many studies demonstrated that 18F-FDG PET is able to detect PCAT inflammation in patients with coronary atherosclerosis. Importantly, the perivascular FAI (fat attenuation index) showed incremental value for the prediction of adverse clinical events beyond traditional risk factors and CCTA indices by providing a quantitative measure of coronary inflammation. As an indicator of increased cardiac mortality, it could guide early targeted primary prevention in a wide spectrum of patients. In this review, we summarize the current evidence regarding the clinical applications and perspectives of EAT and PCAT assessment performed by CCTA and the prognostic information derived by nuclear medicine.

COVID-19: Findings in nuclear medicine from head to toe.

COVID-19 is a multisystemic disease, and hence its potential manifestations on nuclear medicine imaging can extend beyond the lung. Therefore, it is important for the nuclear medicine physician to recognize these manifestations in the clinic. While FDG-PET/CT is not indicated routinely in COVID-19 evaluation, its unique capability to provide a functional and anatomical assessment of the entire body means that it can be a powerful tool to monitor acute, subacute, and long-term effects of COVID-19. Single-photon scintigraphy is routinely used to assess conditions such as pulmonary embolism, cardiac ischemia, and thyroiditis, and COVID-19 may present in these studies. The most common nuclear imaging finding of COVID-19 vaccination to date is hypermetabolic axillary lymphadenopathy. This may pose important diagnostic and management dilemmas in oncologic patients, particularly those with malignancies where the axilla constitutes a lymphatic drainage area. This article aims to summarize the relevant literature published since the beginning of the pandemic on the intersection between COVID-19 and nuclear medicine.

Supply Issues in Nuclear Medicine.

ABSTRACT: Issues related to the distribution and availability of supplies and personnel in nuclear medicine are well known and episodic. The combination of COVID-related restrictions and the unprecedented growth of our specialty have acutely exacerbated these supply and demand mismatches.

Simulated daily readout for maintaining nuclear medicine education in residency training amidst declining case volume: evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Simulated daily readout (SDR) is a teaching initiative in radiology and nuclear medicine developed to simulate a resident's experience during periods of case volume reduction. SDR was employed by many training centers during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study aimed to evaluate the perception of radiology residents on the effectiveness of SDR. METHOD: The SDR was conducted in the nuclear medicine rotations from 2019 to 2020 during the shutdown of the radionuclide imaging facilities using a combination of strategies including case selection, assignment, reporting and feedback. A brief 8-item questionnaire with Likert scale values was completed by radiology residents who participated in the SDR-based nuclear medicine rotations. RESULTS: Thirty-five of 54 residents returned the questionnaire. The majority of residents affirmed the negative impact of the reduction in case volume on their training experiences and perceived that SDR could alleviate the effects. The SDR strategies perceived as more effective were targeted case selection, in-advanced assignment, verbal interpretation and reporting, and verbal feedback. CONCLUSION: The radiology residents perceived the SDR as an effective tool to preserve their training experiences. The SDR has the potential to be a useful initiative when teaching centers face the threat of declining case volume.

Evolving operational guidance and experiences for radiology and nuclear medicine facilities in response to and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

The resulting pandemic from the novel severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2, SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), continues to exert a strain on worldwide health services due to the incidence of hospitalization and mortality associated with infection. The aim of clinical services throughout the period of the pandemic and likely beyond to endemic infections as the situation stabilizes is to enhance safety aspects to mitigate transmission of COVID-19 while providing a high quality of service to all patients (COVID-19 positive and negative) while still upholding excellent medical standards. In order to achieve this, new strategies of clinical service operation are essential. Researchers have published peer-reviewed reference materials such as guidelines, experiences and advice to manage the resulting issues from the unpredictable challenges presented by the pandemic. There is a range of international guidance also from professional medical organizations, including best practice and advice in order to help imaging facilities adjust their standard operating procedures and workflows in line with infection control principles. This work provides a broad review of the main sources of advice and guidelines for radiology and nuclear medicine facilities during the pandemic, and also of rapidly emerging advice and local/national experiences as facilities begin to resume previously canceled non-urgent services as well as effects on imaging research.

Impact Factor JUMPS After the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic: A Retrospective Study in Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging Journals.

ABSTRACT: One of the most widely applied methods for evaluating a research paper's quality is the impact factor (IF). The term JUMPS was applied to the IF in an article published in PubMed in 2021, describing an increase of more than 40% of IF. In this study, we aimed to compare the growth rate of IF JUMPS in Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging in the last 6 years. This retrospective study calculated the growth rate (JUMP) in IF from 2015 to 2020. We used the Friedman and Wilcoxon signed ranks tests to calculate the statistically significant difference in IF from 2015 to 2020 and the 2019 to 2020 difference. We classified JUMPS in negative growth rate, quartiles, and journals with >100%. Three journals had more than 100% IF growth rate during 2020 ( Zeitschrift fur Medizinische Physik , Journal of the Belgian Society of Radiology , and Ultrasound Quarterly ). A 76% to 100% growth rate was observed in another 4 journals (3.2%), and 8 journals (6.3%) depicted a 51% to 75% percentage of change. Repeated measures analyses showed a significant difference ( P < 0.001). During the COVID-19 pandemic, several journals in the Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging category increased their IF by 50%. Knowing the growing trends in this category might supplement the assessment of target journals for authors looking to submit their works.

Medical Historians and Historians of Medicine: Time for a Truce

It could be argued that the first medical historian in the Western Medical Tradition, is the author of the treatise On Ancient Medicine, included in the Hippocratic Corpus, in all probability, Hippocrates himself. In our time, the domain of the history of medicine is inhabited by two factions, often indifferent towards each other's contributions, if not occasionally confrontational. One faction is represented by medical practitioners who, usually upon retirement from clinical care, research and seek to understand the practice and evolution of their craft in the recent and distant past. They are the medical historians. The other, by academic historians with a background in humanities who view and research the history of medicine from a different perspective. Historiography, the philosophy of science, philological concerns, the provenance of manuscripts, textual scrutiny, the cultural and social parameters relevant to their historical subject, are the focus of the work of these historians of medicine. Rarely, researchers of the history of medicine combine optimally humanities with a medical background. Many will recognize Sir William Osler (1849-1919) as the best representative of this happy cohabitation. The opportunity now arises for a fruitful collaboration between medical historians and historians of medicine in recording the unprecedented times and the global challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now is the time for truce.

Trends and hot topics in radiology, nuclear medicine and medical imaging from 2011-2021: a bibliometric analysis of highly cited papers.

PURPOSE: To spotlight the trends and hot topics looming from the highly cited papers in the subject category of Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging with bibliometric analysis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Based on the Essential Science Indicators, this study employed a bibliometric method to examine the highly cited papers in the subject category of Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging in Web of Science (WoS) Categories, both quantitatively and qualitatively. In total, 1325 highly cited papers were retrieved and assessed spanning from the years of 2011 to 2021. In particular, the bibliometric information of the highly cited papers based on WoS database such as the main publication venues, the most productive countries, and the top cited publications was presented. An Abstract corpus was built to help identify the most frequently explored topics. VoSviewer was used to visualize the co-occurrence networks of author keywords. RESULTS: The top three active journals are Neuroimage, Radiology and IEEE T Med Imaging. The United States, Germany and England have the most influential publications. The top cited publications unrelated to COVID-19 can be grouped in three categories: recommendations or guidelines, processing software, and analysis methods. The top cited publications on COVID-19 are dominantly in China. The most frequently explored topics based on the Abstract corpus and the author keywords with the great link strengths overlap to a great extent. Specifically, phrases such as magnetic resonance imaging, deep learning, prostate cancer, chest CT, computed tomography, CT images, coronavirus disease, convolutional neural network(s) are among the most frequently mentioned. CONCLUSION: The bibliometric analysis of the highly cited papers provided the most updated trends and hot topics which may provide insights and research directions for medical researchers and healthcare practitioners in the future.

Educational Effect of Remote Lectures for Students Aiming to Become Radiologic Technologists: Questionnaire on Nuclear Medicine Examinations.

In the latter half of 2019, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) began spreading worldwide. To prevent COVID-19 infection, all teaching at Suzuka University of Medical Sciences from April to June 2020 took place as remote lectures, not in the face-to-face format. This study analyzed postlecture questionnaire responses regarding face-to-face and remote teaching on the subject of nuclear medicine technology examinations. We examined the educational effect of using remote lectures. Methods: We conducted a questionnaire survey among students by means of a 5-point evaluation scale about satisfaction, comprehension, concentration, preparation, reviewing, and the question environment for face-to-face and remote lectures. Results: We present the results as means and SDs. Satisfaction results for face-to-face and remote lectures were 3.30 ± 0.72 and 3.36 ± 0.88, respectively. Comprehension results for face-to-face and remote lectures were 3.30 ± 0.71 and 3.30 ± 0.83, respectively. Concentration results for face-to-face and remote lectures were 3.50 ± 0.69 and 3.05 ± 0.90, respectively. The preparation results for face-to-face and remote lectures were 2.57 ± 0.88 and 2.67 ± 0.94, respectively. The reviewing results for face-to-face and remote lectures were 2.84 ± 0.85 and 3.39 ± 0.89, respectively. The question environment results for face-to-face and remote lectures lessons were 2.94 ± 0.90 and 3.43 ± 0.84, respectively. There were no significant differences between face-to-face and remote lectures in terms of satisfaction, comprehension, or preparation. There were significant differences between face-to-face and remote lectures in terms of concentration, reviewing, and the questioning environment (P < 0.001). Conclusion: This comparative analysis of the postlecture questionnaire responses for face-to-face and remote formats in nuclear medicine technology examinations showed that remote lectures have a strong educational effect. We believe that, in future, remote lectures should be considered a tool in student education.

Changing Methods of Education During a Pandemic: Questionnaire Survey about Examinations for Nuclear Medicine Technology at Educational Institutions in Japan.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread around the world. Its effects go far beyond health care: education has to be conducted so as to prevent infection among students and faculty. Accordingly, changes have occurred in Japan's educational institutions, including methods of preparing students for examinations for nuclear medicine. To assess the quality of training for radiologic technologists, we investigated the related changes undertaken at educational institutions. We investigated the lecture format for teaching nuclear medicine technology at Japanese institutions during COVID-19 and efforts to ensure the quality of conventional education. Methods: We sent a questionnaire to 19 Japanese institutions. It addressed the lecture format and initiatives in examinations for nuclear medicine technology in the first and second semesters of 2020. Results: We obtained responses from 17 institutions. In the first semester of 2020, the lecture format for nuclear medicine technology included remote, hybrid (combination of remote and face-to-face), and video-on-demand lectures. To reinforce the effect of the new teaching formats, institutions adopted various methods, such as enhancing the possibility of allowing students to ask questions, increasing the number of quizzes during lectures, delivering lectures to YouTube, and introducing an e-learning system. In the second semester of 2020, the lecture format included face-to-face, remote, hybrid, and video-on-demand lectures. In that second semester, the number of institutions providing face-to-face lectures while taking thorough measures against infection showed a marked increase. Conclusion: The institutions introduced various educational techniques and initiatives. They prioritized students' understanding of lecture content and applied what they considered the best teaching methods. Sharing information about the changes adopted at different institutions should help promote good radiologic technologists-even during a pandemic.

Dedicated COVID-19 Resource Center in Radiology Journals: Its Citation Metrics and Altmetrics Impact.

BACKGROUND: Since the emergence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), several journals have established a dedicated resource center for all the articles published on COVID-19. Our study compared the altmetric impact captured by articles published in journals having a COVID-19 resource center. METHODS: We used the Web of Science database to assess radiology journals publishing the most common articles on COVID-19. We used the dimensions database to assess citations received and altmetric attention score for each article. For each article, we extracted several citations received and altmetric attention scores. To account for the variation in strength and exposure between included journals, we adopted a normalization strategy and regression analysis in our statistical analysis. RESULTS: A total of 494 articles were included in the current assessment, including 334 (67.6%) articles published in journals with the dedicated COVID-19 resource center, including European radiology, American Journal of Roentgenology, Radiology, and Journal of the American college of radiology, while European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Academic Radiology did not have COVID-19 resource center. Journals with COVID-19 resource center had a mean normalized altmetric attention score of 0.38 higher (95% CI 0.25 to 0.50; p< 0.001) and a mean normalized citation count of 6.73 higher (95% CI 3.99 to 9.48; p< 0.001) than those without COVID-19 resource center. CONCLUSION: Radiology journals that provided COVID-19 articles in a dedicated resource center within its homepage had greater attention and higher citation for their COVID-19 articles than journals that did not have such a dedicated resource center.