Browsing by Author "Soares, Sofia"
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- 99mTc-MAA for Lung Perfusion Scintigraphy: Impact of Counting Method on the Effective Number of Particles Administered and Particle Aggregation Over TimePublication . Costa, Pedro; Cunha, Lídia; Soares, Sofia; Mendes, Ângela; Queiroz, Ana; Nunes, Amélia; Ferreira, Elisabete; Botelho, Elisa; Sousa, Maria C.; Castro, Rosa; Pires, Laucena; João, M. Faria; Metello, Luís F.: 99mTc-MAA (macroaggregates of albumin) is the selected radiopharmaceutical for the Lung Perfusion Scintigraphy. It is retained in lung capillaries by mechanical blockage resulting in local microembolization. Care should be taken concerning not only particle size but also the number of particles administered to patients, particularly those who present with special conditions (pulmonary hypertension, shunt or lung transplant). European Pharmacopoeia only requires the assessment of particle size. This work aims to characterize particle size and particle aggregation of two commercial brands of MAA kits and to compare particle counting methods
- 99mTc-MAA for Lung Perfusion Scintigraphy: Impact of Counting Method on the Effective Number of Particles Administered and Particle Aggregation Over TimePublication . Costa, Pedro; Cunha, Lídia; Soares, Sofia; Mendes, Ângela; Queiroz, A. Isabel; Nunes, Amélia; Ferreira, Elisabete; Botelho, Elisa; Sousa, Conceição; Castro, Rosa; Pires, Laucena; João, M. Faria; Metello, Luís F.Introduction: 99mTc-MAA (macroaggregates of albumin) is the selected radiopharmaceutical for the Lung Perfusion Scintigraphy. It is retained in lung capillaries by mechanical blockage resulting in local microembolization. Care should be taken concerning not only particle size butalso the number of particles administered to patients, particularly those who present with special conditions (pulmonary hypertension, shunt or lung transplant). European Pharmacopoeia only requires the assessment of particle size. This work aims to characterize particle size and particle aggregation of two commercial brands of MAA kits and to compare particle counting methods.
- Actualities on Nuclear Medicine Applications in Sports MedicinePublication . Fonseca, Abigaíl; Soares, Sofia; Cunha, Lídia; Metello, Luís F.Aims: This paper aims to address some of the main possible applications of actual Nuclear Medicine Imaging techniques and methodologies in the specific context of Sports Medicine, namely in two critical systems: musculoskeletal and cardiovascular. Discussion: At the musculoskeletal level, bone scintigraphy techniques proved to be a mean of diagnosis of functional orientation and high sensibility compared with other morphological imaging techniques in the detection and temporal evaluation of pathological situations, for instance allowing the acquisition of information of great relevance in athletes with stress fractures. On the other hand, infection/inflammation studies might be of an important added value to characterize specific situations, early diagnose of potential critical issues – so giving opportunity to precise, complete and fast solutions – while allowing the evaluation and eventual optimization of training programs. At cardiovascular system level, Nuclear Medicine had proved to be crucial in differential diagnosis between cardiac hypertrophy secondary to physical activity (the so called "athlete's heart") and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, in the diagnosis and prognosis of changes in cardiac function in athletes, as well as in direct - and non-invasive - in vivo visualization of sympathetic cardiac innervation, something that seems to take more and more importance nowadays, namely in order to try to avoid sudden death episodes at intense physical effort. Also the clinical application of Positron Emission Tomography (PET) has becoming more and more widely recognized as promising. Conclusions: It has been concluded that Nuclear Medicine can become an important application in Sports Medicine. Its well established capabilities to early detection of processes involving functional properties allied to its high sensibility and the actual technical possibilities (namely those related with hybrid imaging, that allows to add information provided by high resolution morphological imaging techniques, such as CT and/or MRI) make it a powerful diagnostic tool, claiming to be used on an each day higher range of clinical applications related with all levels of sport activities. Since the improvements at equipment characteristics and detection levels allows the use of smaller and smaller doses, so minimizing radiation exposure it is believed by the authors that the increase of the use of NM tools in the Sports Medicine area should be considered.
- Image upsampling algorithms applied on Nuclear Medicine: comparision of hqnx and nxSaI algorithms families with two interpolation algorithms - nearest neighbour and bicubic interpolationPublication . Nogueira, Fábio; Matias, Mariana; Soares, Sofia; Cunha, Lídia; Metello, Luís F.Introduction: Image resizing is a normal feature incorporated into the Nuclear Medicine digital imaging. Upsampling is done by manufacturers to adequately fit more the acquired images on the display screen and it is applied when there is a need to increase - or decrease - the total number of pixels. This paper pretends to compare the “hqnx” and the “nxSaI” magnification algorithms with two interpolation algorithms – “nearest neighbor” and “bicubic interpolation” – in the image upsampling operations. Material and Methods: Three distinct Nuclear Medicine images were enlarged 2 and 4 times with the different digital image resizing algorithms (nearest neighbor, bicubic interpolation nxSaI and hqnx). To evaluate the pixel’s changes between the different output images, 3D whole image plot profiles and surface plots were used as an addition to the visual approach in the 4x upsampled images. Results: In the 2x enlarged images the visual differences were not so noteworthy. Although, it was clearly noticed that bicubic interpolation presented the best results. In the 4x enlarged images the differences were significant, with the bicubic interpolated images presenting the best results. Hqnx resized images presented better quality than 4xSaI and nearest neighbor interpolated images, however, its intense “halo effect” affects greatly the definition and boundaries of the image contents. Conclusion: The hqnx and the nxSaI algorithms were designed for images with clear edges and so its use in Nuclear Medicine images is obviously inadequate. Bicubic interpolation seems, from the algorithms studied, the most suitable and its each day wider applications seem to show it, being assumed as a multi-image type efficient algorithm.
- Nuclear Medicine Technologists Basic and Advanced Practice: What Does it Really Means?Publication . Metello, Luís F.; Costa, Pedro; Lemos, Joana; Ferreira, Sara; Vieira, Domingos; Fonseca, Abigaíl; Soares, Sofia; Cunha, LídiaNuclear Medicine is an independent medical specialty for almost fifty years. If that is quite clear and widely accepted, being in the basis and the justification for specialization between the distinct professionals involved, in many countries there is one exception: the Technologists. Since, in some countries, Nuclear Medicine is part of Medical Imaging area (which could include different specialties such as Radiology or Ultrasonography and, in a more restrict number of countries, even Radiotherapy), the “versatility” of Technologists might be somehow appreciated by some of the parts involved. Nevertheless, there are critical issues that need to be addressed - like the ability and capacity to perform distinct Practices at a certain level of autonomy and responsibility - and the final positions might be very distinct from one to another country.
- Study of the Influence of Patient Hydration in Bone ScintigraphyPublication . Ferreira, Sara; Cunha, Lídia; Osório, Soraia; Matias, Mariana; Lemos, Joana; Vieira, Domingos; Soares, Sofia; Fonseca, Abigaíl; Silva, José Alexandre; Amorim, Inês; Castro, Rosa; Metello, Luís F.The bone scintigraphy is a diagnosis method noninvasive and sensitive in detecting early bone lesions, constituting about 35% of all tests performed in the Service of Nuclear Medicine, of the Hospital of Santo Antonio, in the city of Porto, where the following study took place. One of the important technical details in preparing the patient for this examination is the hydration following the administration of the radiopharmaceutical. The aim of this study focused on assessing the value of hydration on the quality of the image in a bone scintigraphy.