[18F] FBB cortical uptake is not related to the age of onset of Alzheimer's disease.

AIM: To investigate the relationships between amyloid burden in brain and the age of onset of Alzheimer's disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We examined 60 patients with clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. Of them, 22 were early-onset of Alzheimer's disease and 38 were late-onset of Alzheimer's disease. All of them underwent a brain PET scan 90 minutes after the injection of 4-[(E)-2-[4-[2-[2-(2-fluoranylethoxy)ethoxy]ethoxy]phenyl]ethenyl]-N-methylaniline ([F] FBB); 300 ± 10 MBq). Relationships between amyloid burden in brain and age of onset of Alzheimer's disease were assessed by means of statistical parametric mapping version 12. RESULTS: There were no significant differences [F] FBB uptake between early-onset of Alzheimer's disease and late-onset of Alzheimer's disease patients. CONCLUSION: In our study group, the age of onset is not related to brain amyloid burden in Alzheimer's disease patients.

Evaluation of Task-Related Brain Activity: Is There a Role for 18F FDG-PET Imaging?

Positron emission tomography (PET) with 2-[18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) has been widely used for the evaluation of cortical glucose metabolism in several neurodegenerative disorders while its potential role in the evaluation of cortical and subcortical activity during a task in the healthy and pathological brain still remains to be a matter of debate. Few studies have been carried out in order to investigate the potential role of this radiotracer for the evaluation of brain glucose consumption during dynamic brain activation. The aim of this review is to provide a general overview of the applications of FDG-PET in the evaluation of cortical activation at rest and during tasks, describing first the physiological basis of FDG distribution in brain and its kinetic in vivo. An overview of the imaging protocols and image interpretation will be provided as well. As a last aspect, the results of the main studies in this field will be summarized and the results of PET findings performed in healthy subjects and patients suffering from various diseases will be reported.

The labeled-leukocyte scan in the study of abdominal abscesses.

AIM: The purpose of the present paper was to review the literature over the last 30 years to assess the value of radionuclide imaging, particularly labeled leukocyte scan, as compared to other imaging modalities in the management of abdominal abscesses. METHODS: A systematic review of the published studies in humans cited in PubMed written in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish was made. RESULTS: Ultrasound (US) has lower sensitivity than leukocyte scan (LS), particularly in patients without localizing signs, while CT has higher sensitivity than US, but less than LS. On the other hand, CT had higher specificity than both LS and US. DISCUSSION: LS is the more sensitive method to localize abdominal abscesses and may guide dedicated US and CT investigations to improve their diagnostic potential. Further diagnostic evolution is expected from the routine use of hybrid SPECT/CT systems.