Positron emission tomography (PET) is a functional imaging technique that uses radioactive substances known as radiotracers to visualize and measure changes in metabolic processes,and in other physiological activities including blood flow,regional chemical composition,and absorption. Different tracers are used for various imaging purposes,depending on the target process within the body.
Nuclear medicine or nucleology is a medical specialty involving the application of radioactive substances in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Nuclear imaging,in a sense,is "radiology done inside out" because it records radiation emitted from within the body rather than radiation that is transmitted through the body from external sources like X-ray generators. In addition,nuclear medicine scans differ from radiology,as the emphasis is not on imaging anatomy,but on the function. For such reason,it is called a physiological imaging modality. Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET) scans are the two most common imaging modalities in nuclear medicine.
[18F]Fluorodeoxyglucose (INN),or fluorodeoxyglucose F 18,also commonly called fluorodeoxyglucose and abbreviated [18F]FDG,2-[18F]FDG or FDG,is a radiopharmaceutical,specifically a radiotracer,used in the medical imaging modality positron emission tomography (PET). Chemically,it is 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-D-glucose,a glucose analog,with the positron-emitting radionuclide fluorine-18 substituted for the normal hydroxyl group at the C-2 position in the glucose molecule.
Technetium (99mTc) medronic acid is a pharmaceutical product used in nuclear medicine to localize bone metastases as well as other diseases that can alter the natural turn-over in the bone by bone scintigraphy.
The Medical University of Varna (MU-Varna) is a Bulgarian state school for higher education dedicated to training specialists in the fields of medicine and healthcare who graduate with the educational and qualification degrees of Master,Bachelor and Professional Bachelor. The university has a legal entity status with the following scope of business activities:training of cadres and professional qualification;training of PhD students;postgraduate education for medical and non-medical cadres;conducting medical diagnosis,prevention,consultation,rehabilitation,and expert services at the university hospitals;scientific research and applied sciences;international cooperation in the field of education and science;administrative,social,sport,publishing,information,and other activities.
Abass Alavi is an Iranian-American physician-scientist specializing in the field of molecular imaging,most notably in the imaging modality of positron emission tomography (PET). In August 1976,he was part of the team that performed the first human PET studies of the brain and whole body using the radiotracer [18F]Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG). Alavi holds the position of Professor of Radiology and Neurology,as well as Director of Research Education in the Department of Radiology at the University of Pennsylvania. Over a career spanning five decades,he has amassed over 2,300 publications and 60,000 citations,earning an h-index of 125 and placing his publication record in the top percentile of scientists.
Positron emission tomography–computed tomography is a nuclear medicine technique which combines,in a single gantry,a positron emission tomography (PET) scanner and an x-ray computed tomography (CT) scanner,to acquire sequential images from both devices in the same session,which are combined into a single superposed (co-registered) image. Thus,functional imaging obtained by PET,which depicts the spatial distribution of metabolic or biochemical activity in the body can be more precisely aligned or correlated with anatomic imaging obtained by CT scanning. Two- and three-dimensional image reconstruction may be rendered as a function of a common software and control system.
The standardized uptake value (SUV) is a nuclear medicine term,used in positron emission tomography (PET) as well as in modern calibrated single photon emission tomography (SPECT) imaging for a semiquantitative analysis. Its use is particularly common in the analysis of [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose ([18F]FDG) images of cancer patients. It can also be used with other PET agents especially when no arterial input function is available for more detailed pharmacokinetic modeling. Otherwise measures like the fractional uptake rate (FUR) or parameters from more advanced pharmacokinetic modeling may be preferable.
The Balkan Universities Network or Balkan Universities Association (BAUNAS) is an association of universities in Southeast Europe. In its present form the body was created after the breakup of the SFR Yugoslavia and the end of the Yugoslav Wars. Association facilitates the regional cooperation in the context of expansion of higher education sector caused by the establishment of new private and public universities.
Brain positron emission tomography is a form of positron emission tomography (PET) that is used to measure brain metabolism and the distribution of exogenous radiolabeled chemical agents throughout the brain. PET measures emissions from radioactively labeled metabolically active chemicals that have been injected into the bloodstream. The emission data from brain PET are computer-processed to produce multi-dimensional images of the distribution of the chemicals throughout the brain.
Positron emission mammography (PEM) is a nuclear medicine imaging modality used to detect or characterise breast cancer. Mammography typically refers to x-ray imaging of the breast,while PEM uses an injected positron emitting isotope and a dedicated scanner to locate breast tumors. Scintimammography is another nuclear medicine breast imaging technique,however it is performed using a gamma camera. Breasts can be imaged on standard whole-body PET scanners,however dedicated PEM scanners offer advantages including improved resolution.
Dihydrotetrabenazine or DTBZ is an organic compound with the chemical formula C19H29NO3. It is a close analog of tetrabenazine. DTBZ and its derivatives,when labeled with positron emitting isotopes such as carbon-11 and fluorine-18,are used as PET radioligands for examining VMAT2.
In the field of medicine,radiomics is a method that extracts a large number of features from medical images using data-characterisation algorithms. These features,termed radiomic features,have the potential to uncover tumoral patterns and characteristics that fail to be appreciated by the naked eye. The hypothesis of radiomics is that the distinctive imaging features between disease forms may be useful for predicting prognosis and therapeutic response for various cancer types,thus providing valuable information for personalized therapy. Radiomics emerged from the medical fields of radiology and oncology and is the most advanced in applications within these fields. However,the technique can be applied to any medical study where a pathological process can be imaged.
Siroos Mirzaei is an Iranian specialist in Nuclear Medicine. He is Head of the Department of Nuclear Medicine of the Wilhelminen Hospital in Vienna. Mirzaei is well known for his scientific work on torture diagnostics with molecular imaging methods.
Sandip Basu is an Indian physician of Nuclear Medicine and the Head,Nuclear Medicine Academic Program at the Radiation Medicine Centre. He is also the Dean-Academic (Health-Sciences),BARC at Homi Bhabha National Institute and is known for his services and research in Nuclear Medicine,particularly on Positron emission tomography diagnostics and Targeted Radionuclide Therapy in Cancer. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research,the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research,awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology,one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Nuclear Medicine in 2012.
Andreas Kjær is a Danish physician-scientist and European Research Council (ERC) advanced grantee. He is professor at the University of Copenhagen and chief physician at Rigshospitalet,the National University Hospital of Denmark. He is board certified in Nuclear Medicine and his research is focused on molecular imaging with PET and PET/MRI and targeted radionuclide therapies (theranostics) in cancer. His achievements include development of several new PET tracers that have reached first-in-human clinical use. He has published more than 400 peer-review articles,filed 10 patents,supervised more than 40 PhD students and received numerous prestigious scientific awards over the years. He is a member of the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences
Philip F. Cohen is a Canadian clinical director of Nuclear Medicine working out of the Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver,British Columbia. As a nuclear medicine physician,he is a pioneer in the usage of 3-D imaging techniques to improve diagnosis of bone disease and injury in collaboration with the Medical Imaging Research Group at University of British Columbia. Furthermore,Cohen has been involved in clinical research trials of new radiopharmaceuticals. To that effect,Cohen was the first recipient of a research grant from the Lions Gate Hospital Foundation,one of several peer-reviewed awards that would follow.
Carbon-11 choline is the basis of medical imaging technologies. Because of its involvement in biologic processes,choline is related to diseases,leading to the development of medical imaging techniques to monitor its concentration. When radiolabeled with 11CH3,choline is a useful a tracer in PET imaging. Carbon-11 is radioactive with a half-life of 20.38 minutes. By monitoring the gamma radiation resulting from the decay of carbon-11,the uptake,distribution,and retention of carbon-11 choline can be monitored.
Krasimir Dimitrov Ivanov is a Bulgarian surgeon and oncologist,professor and rector of the Medical University "Prof. Dr. Paraskev Stoyanov" of Varna in the period 2012–2020. In the past,he was the executive director of St. Marina University Hospital of Varna.
Valentin Lyubomirov Ignatov is a Bulgarian surgeon,professor,rector of the Medical University "Prof. Dr. Paraskev Stoyanov" of Varna,and an executive director of St. Marina University Hospital,Varna (2016–2020).
