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The revolution that we are seeing in the world of surgery will determine the way we understand surgical approaches in coming years. Since the implementation of minimally invasive surgery, innovations have constantly been developed to allow the laparoscopic approach to go further and be applied to more and more procedures. In recent years, we have been in the middle of another revolutionary era, with robotic surgery, the application of artificial intelligence and image-guided surgery. The latter includes 3D reconstructions for surgical planning, virtual reality, holograms or tracer-guided surgery, where ICG-guided fluorescence has provided a different perspective on surgery. ICG has been used to identify anatomical structures, assess tissue perfusion, and identify tumors or tumor lymphatic drainage. But the most important thing is that this technology has come hand in hand with the potential to develop other types of tracers that will facilitate the identification of tumor cells and ureters, as well as different light beams to identify anatomical structures. These will lead to other types of systems to assess tissue perfusion without the use of tracers, such as hyperspectral imaging. Combined with the upcoming introduction of ICG quantification, these developments represent a real revolution in the surgical world. With the imminent implementation of these technological advances, a review of their clinical application in general surgery is timely, and this review serves that aim., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U.)

Background: In spontaneous subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) accurate determination of the bleeding source is paramount to guide treatment. Traditionally, the bleeding pattern has been used to predict the aneurysm location. Here, we have tested a software-based tool, which quantifies the volume of intracranial blood and stratifies it according to the regional distribution, to predict the location of the ruptured aneurysm., Methods: A consecutive series of SAH patients admitted to a single tertiary centre between 2012-2018, within 72 h of onset, harbouring a single intracranial aneurysm. A semi-automatized method of blood quantification, based on the relative density increase, was applied to initial non-contrast CTs. Five regions were used to define the bleeding patterns and to correlate them with aneurysm location: perimesencephalic, interhemispheric, right/left hemisphere and intraventricular., Results: 68 patients were included for analysis. There was a strong association between the distribution of blood and the aneurysm location (p < 0.001). In particular: ACom and interhemispheric fissure (p < 0.001), MCA and ipsilateral hemisphere (p < 0.001), ICA and ipsilateral hemisphere and perimesencephalic cisterns (p < 0.001), PCom and hemispheric, perimesencephalic and intraventricular (p = 0.019), and PICA and perimesencephalic and intraventricular (p < 0.001). The internal diagnostic value was high (AUROC ≥ 0.900) for these locations., Conclusion: Regional automatised volumetry seems a reliable and objective tool to quantify and describe the distribution of blood within the subarachnoid spaces. This tool accurately predicts the location of the ruptured aneurysm; its use may be prospectively considered in the emergency setting when speed and simplicity are attained., (Copyright © 2024 Sociedad Española de Neurocirugía. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: To determine the diagnostic contribution of the absolute quantification of the myocardial deposit of 99m Tc-DPD in patients with cardiac amyloidosis due to transthyretin deposits (ATTR)., Materials and Methods: SPECT/CT was performed in 41 patients with positive scintigraphic results for ATTR cardiac amyloidosis. The patients were divided into two groups (Perugini grades 2 and 3) and the SUVmax at the level of the bone and both ventricles and the percentage of dose calculated in these areas were calculated. The Student's t-test was used to compare results and the area under the curve (AUC) was calculated to assess differential efficacy and establish discriminatory cut-off points between both groups of patients., Results: Statistically significant differences were observed in all the study variables, with the exception of bone SUV max . The differences with the greatest statistical power were observed in the variables SUV maxRV and the percentage of dose in both ventricles (p < 0.001). The cut-off point obtained for the variable SUVm axLV was 8.620 (sensitivity 87.9% and specificity 100%; AUC 0.966), while that of the variable SUV maxRV was 6.195 (sensitivity 81.8% and specificity 100%; AUC 0.955)., Conclusions: The absolute quantification of myocardial uptake of 99m Tc-DPD in the SPECT/CT images of patients with suspected cardiac amyloidosis due to transthyretin deposits represents a new diagnostic tool that allows adequate classification of patients according to the Perugini visual grading scale., (Copyright © 2023 Sociedad Española de Medicina Nuclear e Imagen Molecular. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

The inclusion of 18 F-FDG PET as a biomarker in the diagnostic criteria of neurodegenerative diseases and its indication in the presurgical assessment for drug-resistant epilepsies allow to improve specificity of these diagnosis. The traditional interpretation of neurological PET studies has been performed qualitatively, although in the last decade, several quantitative evaluation methods have emerged. This technical development has become relevant in clinical practice, improving specificity, reproducibility and reducing the interrater reliability derived from visual analysis. In this article we update/review the main imaging processing techniques currently used. This may allow the Nuclear Medicine physician to know their advantages and disadvantages when including these procedures in daily clinical practice., (Copyright © 2020 Sociedad Española de Medicina Nuclear e Imagen Molecular. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

Objective: 18 F-Fluorine fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography ( 18 F-FDG PET/CT) imaging is considered the standard imaging modality for patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma. The aim of this study was to compare clinical staging (cTNM) performed with 18 F-FDG PET/CT and surgical staging (sTNM) in patients with non-small cell carcinoma treated with surgery., Material and Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of 99 surgical patients with non-small cell carcinoma who underwent 18 F-FDG PET/CT examination. Semiquantitative measures were calculated from the primary lesions and mediastinal lymph nodes. Findings of cTNM were compared with final surgical-pathological evaluation. Subjects were divided into two groups as postsurgical cTNM changed and cTNM unchanged. Patients in the cTNM changed group were further classified as postsurgical upstaged (US) and downstaged (DS). Results of the US patients were compared with the results of the remaining patients consisting of cTNM unchanged and DS to evaluate the predictable roles of semiquantitative parameters for postsurgical upstaging. To determine mediastinal tumoral involvement, cut-off values were obtained from calculated semiquantitative results of FDG uptakes in lymph nodes. A p value<0.05 was considered statistically significant., Results: Subjects were aged 40-82 years with a mean age of 64.78±8.70 years. Classification agreement was observed in 43 patients (43%) and in 57%, postsurgical stage migration was seen. Concurrence of cTNM and sTNM was more pronounced in the T1 and N0 subsets which were 84% and 74%, respectively. The lowest concurrence was observed in N1 classification followed by T4 and N2 (1%, 50% and 58%, respectively). Change in T staging occurred in 20 of 56 (36%), in N staging 22 of 56 (39%) and change in T and N in 14 patients (25%). Distribution of US and DS patients in the cTNM changed group was 43% (24 of 56) and 57% (32 of 56), respectively. Results of semiquantitative measures were significantly higher in US patients than the results of the group consisting of DS patients and cTNM unchanged patients, for all parameters. Cut-off value calculated from mediastinal uptakes was most specific for metastases in MTV (metabolic tumor volume) with an acceptable sensitivity (90% and 67%, respectively)., Conclusions: The concordance between cTNM and sTNM was better in staging T category compared to N stations. Semiquantitative measures of primary tumor may play a role in predicting postsurgical upstaging. Taking MTV into consideration in the mediastinal region may be more valuable than other parameters in the assessment of nodal involvement., (Copyright © 2019. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U.)

Qualitative techniques have traditionally been the standard for the diagnostic assessment with 18 F-FDG PET studies. Since the introduction of the technique, quantitative parameters have been sought, more accurate and with better diagnostic precision, that may offer relevant information of the behavior, aggressiveness or prognosis of tumors. Nowadays, more and more studies with high quality evidence show the utility of other metabolic parameters different from the SUV maximum, which despite being widely used in clinical practice is controversial and many physicians still do not know its real meaning. The objective of this paper has been to review the key concepts of these metabolic parameters that could be relevant in normal practice in the future. It has been seen that there is more evidence in the complete evaluation of the metabolism of a lesion, through volumetric parameters that more adequately reflect the patient's tumor burden. Basically, these parameters calculate the volume of tumor that fulfills certain characteristics. A software available in the majority of the workstations has been used for this purpose and it has allowed to calculate these volumes using more or less complex criteria. The simplest threshold-based segmentation methods are available in most equipments, they are easy to calculate and they have been shown in many studies to have an important prognostic significance., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier España, S.L.U. y SEMNIM. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To test a software application for the quantification of metabolic heterogeneity and to evaluate its superiority in relation to visual interpretation. To investigate if a quantitative analysis adds information to the interpretation of 18 F-FDG-PET/CT., Material and Methods: The study analyzed 215 patients with a 18 F-FDG-PET/CT done for the initial staging of lung cancer between March 2011 and December 2015. The study included 57 (26.5%) women and 158 (73.5%) men, with ages ranging from 34 to 88 years (mean±SD: 67.23±10.04). There were 82 surgical stages (I, II, IIIA), and 133 non-surgical stages (IIIB, IV). The primary tumour was analyzed quantitatively by obtaining the following parameters: SUVmax, metabolic active tumour volume (MATV), total lesion glycolysis (TLG), and the entropy heterogeneity index (ET). Heterogeneity was assessed visually. Death dates and/or the follow-up time were registered, ranging from 0.70 to 67.60 months (mean±SD: 23.20±17.68)., Results: In multivariate analysis, ET emerged as a better predictor of survival than visual analysis of heterogeneity that was not statistically significant. The C-index determination demonstrated that all quantitative parameters were statistically-significant predictors of survival. Cut-offs were obtained in order to compare survival times. A multivariate analysis was performed. In the total population, the best predictor was the TNM stage, but MATV, ET, and male gender were statistically significant and independent predictors of survival. In stages without surgical indication, the best predictor was the TNM stage, but the MATV and male gender were statistically significant and independent predictors of survival. In the surgical stages, ET was the only statistically significant and independent predictor of survival., Conclusions: Quantification adds prognostic information to the visual analysis of 18 F-FDG-PET/CT., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier España, S.L.U. y SEMNIM. All rights reserved.)

Radical cytoreductive surgery followed by hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy increases survival in patients with end-stage peritoneal carcinomatosis, and who are under palliative therapy. The Peritoneal Cancer Index enables the tumor burden to be quantified during surgery, as well as treatment planning and patient prognosis. It is obtained by combining the tumor spread in 13 abdominal and pelvic regions with the largest tumor size. Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography is the technique of choice for those patients selected to undergo radical cytoreductive surgery followed by hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy, due to its higher detection rate of carcinomatosis, and since it allows extra-peritoneal disease staging. The simplified Peritoneal Cancer Index (9 regions defined by 2 transverse and 2 sagittal planes) obtained by fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography allows correlation with the surgical procedure, therefore its standardization is advisable., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier España, S.L.U. y SEMNIM. All rights reserved.)

Aim: To study in detail the accuracy and repeatability of three commonly used methods for SUV estimation in solitary pulmonary nodules., Material and Methods: We have designed a realistic framework based on simulated FDG-PET acquisitions from an anthropomorphic activity model that included solitary pulmonary nodules (different sizes) of well-known SUV. This framework enables us to compare the SUV values obtained from the reconstructed PET images with the real SUV values. Three commonly used methods (SUVmax, SUVmean and SUV50) were used to estimate the tumor activity., Results: Our results showed the tumor activity was overestimated using SUVmax and clearly subestimated using SUVmean. Instead, the quantification of SUV50 showed great agreement with the simulated tumor activity and only slight subestimation was found for very small lesions. On the other hand, SUVmean showed better performance than SUV50 in terms of repeatability, providing variabilities below 5% for all tumor sizes and for injected doses as low as 111 MBq., Conclusions: Our findings showed that SUV50 provided better performance for estimating accurately tumor SUV values in pulmonary nodules, but SUVmean showed better results in terms of repeatability., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier España, S.L.U. and SEMNIM. All rights reserved.)