Endocrinology application of molecular imaging: current role of PET/CT.

BACKGROUND: In recent years, nuclear medicine imaging methods have proven to be of paramount importance in a wide variety of diseases, particularly in oncology, where they are crucial for assessing the extent of disease when conventional methods fall short. Moreover, nuclear imaging modalities are able to better characterize lesions using target agents related to specific pathways (e.g. glucose metabolism, cellular proliferation, amino acid transport, lipid metabolism, specific receptor ligands). The clinical presentation of endocrine diseases encompasses a broad spectrum of sign and symptoms. Moreover, endocrine tumors show varying degrees of aggressiveness from well differentiated and indolent to highly aggressive cancers, respectively. RATIONALE: With the application of new medicinal radio-compounds and increasingly advanced tomographic imaging technology, the utility of Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography (PET/CT) in the field of endocrine diseases is expanding. AIM: This review aims to analyze and summarize the primary indications of PET/CT, providing a practical approach for clinicians. A comprehensive literature search on PubMed was conducted to provide an updated overview of the available evidence regarding the use of PET/CT in endocrinology. Within this review, we will discuss the applications of PET/CT, compare different radiopharmaceuticals and highlight the uptake mechanism, excluding neuroendocrine carcinomas from discussion. CONCLUSIONS: PET/CT is a valuable tool in diagnosing and managing endocrine disorders due to its capacity to furnish both functional and anatomical information, facilitate early lesion detection, guide treatment decisions, and monitor treatment response. Its non-invasive nature and precision make it an integral component of modern endocrine healthcare. This review aims to provide physicians with a clear perspective on the role of PET/CT imaging, discussing its emerging opportunities and appropriateness of use in endocrinological diseases.

PET/TC 11C-colina detecta múltiples pequeñas metástasis peritoneales en un paciente con cáncer de próstata / 11C-Choline PET/CT detects multiple small peritoneal metastasis in a prostate cancer patient

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Relaxed selective constraints drove functional modifications in peripheral photoreception of the cavefish P. andruzzii and provide insight into the time of cave colonization.

The genetic basis of phenotypic changes in extreme environments is a key but rather unexplored topic in animal evolution. Here we provide an exemplar case of evolution by relaxed selection in the Somalian cavefish Phreatichthys andruzzii that has evolved in the complete absence of light for at least 2.8 million years. This has resulted in extreme degenerative phenotypes, including complete eye loss and partial degeneration of the circadian clock. We have investigated the molecular evolution of the nonvisual photoreceptor melanopsin opn4m2, whose mutation contributes to the inability of peripheral clocks to respond to light. Our intra- and inter-species analyses suggest that the 'blind' clock in P. andruzzii evolved because of the loss of selective constraints on a trait that was no longer adaptive. Based on this change in selective regime, we estimate that the functional constraint on cavefish opn4m2 was relaxed at ∼5.3 Myr. This implies a long subterranean history, about half in complete isolation from the surface. The visual photoreceptor rhodopsin, expressed in the brain and implicated in photophobic behavior, shows similar evolutionary patterns, suggesting that extreme isolation in darkness led to a general weakening of evolutionary constraints on light-responsive mechanisms. Conversely, the same genes are still conserved in Garra barreimiae, a cavefish from Oman, that independently and more recently colonized subterranean waters and evolved troglomorphic traits. Our results contribute substantially to the open debate on the genetic bases of regressive evolution.

Immunohematological study in newborn infants with erythroblastosis fetalis transfused in utero.

The present study reports immunohematological data (anti-erythrocyte titer, anti-erythrocyte functional activity, percentage of sensitized erythrocytes) in 11 patients with erythroblastosis fetalis transfused in utero (IUTd). At birth it was possible to define two groups of newborns: one with low (group 1) and one with high (group 2) percentage of circulating sensitized erythrocytes, respectively. The presence of a low rate of sensitized red cells at birth in IUTd infants did not reduce the number of exchange transfusions required postnatally. On the contrary, babies of this group were affected by a more severe disease as shown by higher anti-erythrocyte maternal titer, higher anti-erythrocyte functional activity and a higher degree of fetal hemolysis. The persistence of hemolysis after birth, in spite of the absence of sensitized circulating erythrocytes, may be due to intramedullary hemolysis.