Clinical nuclear medicine
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Clinical nuclear medicine · Dec 2020
Case ReportsLung Scintigraphy Imaging Features in a Young Patient With COVID-19.
A 31-year-old man developed diarrhea, fatigue, and intermittent fever for 2 weeks. The past few days he had experienced increasing dyspnea and dry cough. Ambulatory reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction testing was positive for SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2). ⋯ Ventilation SPECT showed reduced ventilation with central nuclide deposition, whereas perfusion SPECT was inconspicuous, excluding pulmonary embolism. However, the low-dose CT revealed bilateral ground-glass opacities as previously described in COVID-19. This case highlights the procedure and findings of V/Q scanning (without embolism) in COVID-19.
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Clinical nuclear medicine · Nov 2020
Reorganization of a Nuclear Medicine Department in Northern Italy During a 2-Month Lockdown for COVID-19 Pandemic.
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has profoundly changed the organization of hospital activities. We present our experience of reorganization of a nuclear medicine service settled in Northern Italy during the pandemic period of March and April 2020 characterized a government-mandated lockdown. ⋯ All staff remained COVID-19-negative despite the unintentional admission of 4 patients who later turned out to be positive for the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. These adopted measures would serve as the basis for safe nuclear medicine services in the post-lockdown phase.
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Clinical nuclear medicine · Aug 2020
Case ReportsLaboratory-Proven Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Infection on 18F-FDG PET/CT.
An 87-year-old man with primary salivary duct carcinoma and hepatic metastases was referred for restaging. F-FDG PET/CT demonstrated new FDG-avid ground-glass opacities with intralobular septal thickening in both lungs with a peripheral dominant distribution. ⋯ However, the patient tested positive for COVID-19 using real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. This case demonstrates that even asymptomatic outpatients undergoing PET/CT should be evaluated for radiologic findings suggestive of COVID-19 during this pandemic.
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Clinical nuclear medicine · Aug 2020
Case ReportsFDG PET/CT in Diagnosing COVID-19 Infection in a Cancer Patient With Exposure History But Minimal Symptoms.
A 56-year-old woman with high-grade neuroendocrine small cell carcinoma had known contact history of COVID-19 about 16 days prior to the restaging PET/CT. The patient was instructed to self-quarantine for 14 days, and no COVID-19 test was performed. ⋯ The FDG PET/CT images revealed new multifocal hypermetabolic bilateral pulmonary ground-glass opacities that are suggestive of COVID-19 pneumonia. Meanwhile, the patient's symptoms worsened, and a blood test later confirmed COVID-19 infection.
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Clinical nuclear medicine · Aug 2020
Case ReportsIncidental Finding of COVID-19 Lung Infection in 18F-FDG PET/CT: What Should We Do?
We report the case of an asymptomatic (no fever, no cough, no dyspnea) 80-year-old woman who had an F-FDG PET/CT scan for initial staging of Lieberkühnian adenocarcinoma located on anal canal. Chest analysis incidentally revealed bilateral diffuse patchy ground-glass opacity with mild increasing F-FDG uptake, consistent with incidental COVID-19 infection finding during the March 2020 pandemic. The infection was confirmed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. It led us to improve patient flow and to undertake broader measures to avoid patient clinical issues and potential disease spreading.