Ciprian Catana

Massachusetts General Hospital | MGH · Department of Radiology

The Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine, which has been used for > 100 years to prevent tuberculosis, is well-established for bladder cancer treatment, and under study for neurological and autoimmune diseases. In patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D), BCG vaccinations have been shown in randomized clinical trials to gradually lower blood sugar to...

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a disorder of clinical and public health significance requiring novel and improved therapeutic solutions. Both environmental and genetic factors play a significant role in its pathophysiology. However, the underlying epigenetic molecular mechanisms that link the gene-environment interaction in AUD remain largely unknow...

Purpose: This study presents the biodistribution, clearance and dosimetry estimates of [64Cu]FBP8 Binding Probe #8 ([64Cu]FBP8) in healthy subjects. Procedures: This prospective study included 8 healthy subjects to evaluate biodistribution, safety and dosimetry estimates of [64Cu]FBP8, a fibrin-binding positron emission tomography (PET) probe. All...

Introduction & Objective: In randomized clinical trials in patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D), bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccinations gradually lower blood sugar to near-normal levels, which appears to be driven by a BCG-induced shift in lymphoid cells’ glucose metabolism from oxidative phosphorylation to aerobic glycolysis. Here we investiga...

Neuroendocrine neoplasms are a heterogeneous group of gastrointestinal and lung tumors. Their diverse clinical manifestations, variable locations, and heterogeneity present notable diagnostic challenges. This article delves into the imaging modalities vital for their detection and characterization. Computed tomography is essential for initial asses...

Sex-based differences in the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are well-documented, with a male-to-female ratio of approximately 4:1. The clinical presentation of the core symptoms of ASD can also vary between sexes. Previously, positron emission tomography (PET) studies have identified alterations in the in vivo levels of translocator p...

Background: Accurate interpretation of quantitative PET outcomes hinges on understanding the test-retest variability (T-RT). Previous studies of the tau-PET ligand [¹⁸F]MK-6240 reported adequate T-RT performance of tau burden estimates over a short-term 21-day and over a longer-term 6-month T-RT period, primarily involving Alzheimer’s disease (AD)...

Compartmentalized meningeal inflammation is thought to represent one of the key players in the pathogenesis of cortical demyelination in multiple sclerosis. Positron emission tomography targeting the 18 kDa mitochondrial Translocator Protein (TSPO) is a molecular-specific approach to quantify immune cell-mediated density in the cortico-meningeal ti...

Purpose: One of the major challenges in the management of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the lack of a reliable imaging tool to monitor tumor response to treatment. A high degree of fibrosis, mainly collagen type I, has been recognized as the hallmark of PDAC, which further increases in response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT). T...

Background Simultaneous positron emission tomography (PET)/magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners and inserts are valuable tools for accurate diagnosis, treatment planning, and monitoring due to their complementary information. However, the integration of a PET system into an MRI scanner presents technical challenges for a distortion‐free operat...

Disclosure: H. Dias: None. J.F. Fu: None. T.G. Luck: None. G.E. Wolfe: None. E. Hostetter: None. N.C. Ng: None. H. Zheng: None. W. Kühtreiber: None. J.C. Price: None. C. Catana: None. D.L. Faustman: None. Diverse microbiomes in humans are known to change host energy metabolism. When the bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine, which consists of live...

Rationale Radiation-induced lung injury (RILI) is a progressive inflammatory process commonly seen following irradiation for lung cancer. The disease can be insidious, often characterized by acute pneumonitis followed by chronic fibrosis with significant associated morbidity. No therapies are approved for RILI, and accurate disease quantification i...

Integrated positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging (PET/MRI) scanners capable of acquiring complementary data simultaneously are currently available for clinical use. This imaging modality has been evaluated for numerous research and clinical applications in dementia. On the one hand, conventional and deep learning techniques ha...

The complementary anatomical and functional information obtained from separately performed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) examinations have long been combined either by performing parallel analyses or by using software coregistration techniques to merge the two datasets. However, a major assumption that has...

Motion degrades image quality, and biases data quantification in positron emission tomography (PET) studies. The MR data acquired using integrated PET/MR scanners can be used to characterize rigid and nonrigid body motion affecting PET studies. Given the simultaneous acquisition, estimates from MR-based motion characterization techniques can be app...

The 68Ga-Collagen Binding Probe #8, 68Ga-CBP8, is a peptide-based, type I collagen-targeted probe developed for imaging of tissue fibrosis. The aim of this study was to determine the biodistribution, dosimetry, and pharmacokinetics of 68Ga-CBP8 in healthy human subjects. Methods: Nine healthy volunteers (5 male and 4 female) underwent whole-body 68...

Objective: To compare standard (STD-DWI) single-shot echo-planar imaging DWI and simultaneous multislice (SMS) DWI during whole-body positron emission tomography (PET)/MRI regarding acquisition time, image quality, and lesion detection. Methods: Eighty-three adults (47 females, 57%), median age of 64 years (IQR 52-71), were prospectively enrolle...

Background: Myocardial feature tracking (FT) provides a comprehensive analysis of myocardial deformation from cine balanced steady-state free-precession images (bSSFP). However, FT remains time-consuming, precluding its clinical adoption. Purpose: To compare left-ventricular global radial strain (GRS) and global circumferential strain (GCS) valu...

Growing number of methods for attenuation-coefficient map estimation from magnetic resonance (MR) images have recently been proposed because of the increasing interest in MR-guided radiotherapy and the introduction of positron emission tomography (PET) MR hybrid systems. We propose a deep-network ensemble incorporating stochastic-binary-anatomical...

Purpose To evaluate if a fully-automatic deep learning method for myocardial strain analysis based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) cine images can detect asymptomatic dysfunction in young adults with cardiac risk factors. Methods An automated workflow termed DeepStrain was implemented using two U-Net models for segmentation and motion tracking...

While COVID-19 research has seen an explosion in the literature, the impact of pandemic-related societal and lifestyle disruptions on brain health among the uninfected remains underexplored. However, a global increase in the prevalence of fatigue, brain fog, depression and other “sickness behavior”-like symptoms implicates a possible dysregulation...

Compartmental modeling analysis of 11C-raclopride (RAC) PET data can be used to measure the dopaminergic response to intra-scan behavioral tasks. Bias in estimates of binding potential (BPND) and its dynamic changes (ΔBPND) can arise both when head motion is present and when the compartmental model used for parameter estimation deviates from the un...

Background and Purpose High-risk atherosclerosis is an underlying cause of cardiovascular events, yet identifying the specific patient population at immediate risk is still challenging. Here, we used a rabbit model of atherosclerotic plaque rupture and human carotid endarterectomy specimens to describe the potential of molecular fibrin imaging as a...

Mothers are highly responsive to their offspring. In non-human mammals, mothers secrete dopamine in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) in response to their pups. Yet, it is still unknown which aspect of the offspring-behavior elicits dopaminergic responses in mothers. Here we tested whether infants' affective signals elicit dopaminergic responses in the...

Direct reconstruction methods have been developed to estimate parametric images directly from the measured PET sinograms by combining the PET imaging model and tracer kinetics in an integrated framework. Due to limited counts received, signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) and resolution of parametric images produced by direct reconstruction frameworks are s...

Objectives The authors present a novel technique to detect and characterize LAA thrombus in humans using combined positron emission tomography (PET)/cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) of a fibrin-binding radiotracer, [⁶⁴Cu]FBP8. Background The detection of thrombus in the left atrial appendage (LAA) is vital in the prevention of stroke and is curren...

We recently showed that patients with different chronic pain conditions (such as chronic low back pain, fibromyalgia, migraine, and Gulf War Illness) demonstrated elevated brain and/or spinal cord levels of the glial marker 18 kDa translocator protein, which suggests that neuroinflammation might be a pervasive phenomenon observable across multiple...

Myocardial strain analysis from cinematic magnetic resonance imaging (cine-MRI) data provides a more thorough characterization of cardiac mechanics than volumetric parameters such as left-ventricular ejection fraction, but sources of variation including segmentation and motion estimation have limited its wider clinical use. We designed and validate...

Attenuation correction (AC) remains a challenge in pelvis PET/MR imaging. In addition to the segmentation/model-based approaches, deep learning methods have shown promise in synthesizing accurate pelvis attenuation maps (μ-maps). However, these methods often misclassify air pockets in the digestive tract, which can introduce bias in the reconstruct...

Positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging (PET/MRI) scanners cannot be qualified in the manner adopted for hybrid PET and computed tomography (CT) devices. The main hurdle with qualification in PET/MRI is that attenuation correction (AC) cannot be adequately measured in conventional PET phantoms due to the difficulty in converting...

Compartmental modeling of 11C-raclopride (RAC) is commonly used to measure dopamine response to intra-scan behavioral tasks. Bias in estimates of binding potential (BPND) and its dynamic changes (ΔBPND) can arise when the selected compartmental model deviates from the underlying biology. In this work, we characterize the bias associated with assumi...

Direct reconstruction methods have been developed to estimate parametric images directly from the measured PET sinograms by combining the PET imaging model and tracer kinetics in an integrated framework. Due to limited counts received, signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) and resolution of parametric images produced by direct reconstruction frameworks are s...

Mechanisms of neuroimmune and mitochondrial dysfunction have been repeatedly implicated in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). To examine these mechanisms in ASD individuals, we measured the in vivo expression of the 18 kDa translocator protein (TSPO), an activated glial marker expressed on mitochondrial membranes. Participants underwent scanning on a...

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the performance of positron emission tomography (PET)/magnetic resonance (MR) versus stand-alone PET and stand-alone magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the detection and characterization of suspected liver metastases. Materials and methods: This multi-institutional retrospective performance study...

Background MR is an important imaging modality for evaluating musculoskeletal malignancies owing to its high soft tissue contrast and its ability to acquire multiparametric information. PET provides quantitative molecular and physiologic information and is a critical tool in the diagnosis and staging of several malignancies. PET/MR, which can take...

11C-Raclopride (RAC) positron emission tomography (PET) is used to study dopamine response to pharmacological and behavioral challenges. Behavioral challenges produce smaller responses than pharmacological challenges and are more susceptible to sources of bias, including motion bias. The purpose of this study was to characterize the effect of motio...

Myocardial strain analysis from cinematic magnetic resonance imaging (cine-MRI) data could provide a more thorough characterization of cardiac mechanics than volumetric parameters such as left-ventricular ejection fraction, but sources of variation including segmentation and motion estimation have limited its wide clinical use. We designed and vali...

The current pandemic has created a situation where nuclear medicine practitioners and medical physicists read or process nuclear medicine images remotely from their home office. This article presents recommendations on the components and specifications when setting up a remote viewing station for nuclear medicine imaging.

Rationale Histone deacetylases (HDACs) play a central role in cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis in preclinical models. However, their impact in the human heart remains unknown. Objective We aimed to image HDAC expression in the human heart in vivo with PET-MR (positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance) using [ ¹¹ C]Martinostat, a novel ra...

Attenuation correction has been one of the main methodological challenges in the integrated positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging (PET/MRI) field. As standard transmission or computed tomography approaches are not available in integrated PET/MRI scanners, MR-based attenuation correction approaches had to be developed. Aspects...

Background Hypoxia is a driver of treatment resistance in glioblastoma. Anti-angiogenic agents may transiently normalize blood vessels and decrease hypoxia before excessive pruning of vessels increases hypoxia. The time window of normalization is dose- and time-dependent. We sought to determine how VEGF blockade with bevacizumab modulates tumor vas...

The detection of thrombus in the left atrial appendage (LAA) is vital in the prevention of stroke. We present a novel technique to detect and characterize LAA thrombus in humans using positron emission tomography (PET) of a fibrin-binding radiotracer, [ ⁶⁴ Cu]FBP8. Initial testing in healthy volunteers (n = 8) revealed that [ ⁶⁴ Cu]FBP8 was stable...

Purpose Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) is associated with a poor prognosis with surgical resection offering the best chance for long-term survival and potential cure. However, in up to 36% of patients who undergo surgery, more extensive disease is found at time of operation requiring cancellation of surgery. PET/MR is a novel hybrid technolo...

Major surgery is associated with a systemic inflammatory cascade that is thought, in some cases, to contribute to transient and/or sustained cognitive decline, possibly through neuroinflammatory mechanisms. However, the relationship between surgery, peripheral and central nervous system inflammation, and post-operative cognitive outcomes remains un...

It is a growing concern that outcomes of neuroimaging studies often cannot be replicated. To counteract this, the magnetic resonance (MR) neuroimaging community has promoted acquisition standards and created data sharing platforms, based on a consensus on how to organize and share MR neuroimaging data. Here, we take a similar approach to positron e...

Background Myocardial oxygenation imaging could help determine the presence of microvascular dysfunction associated with increased cardiovascular risk. However, it is challenging to depict the potentially small oxygenation alterations with current noninvasive cardiac MRI blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) techniques. Purpose To demonstrate the car...

Gadolinium‐based contrast agents (GBCAs) are used to provide diagnostic information in clinical magnetic resonance (MR) examinations. Gadolinium (Gd) has been detected in the brain, bone and skin of patients, months and years following GBCA administration, raising concerns about long term toxicity. Despite increased scrutiny, the concentration, che...

Prüfung auf Herz und Nieren: PET mit Yttrium‐86 kann Auskunft geben über die Clearance und biologische Verteilung der in der Kernspintomographie verwendeten Kontrastmittel auf Gadoliniumbasis. Spuren von Kontrastmittel lassen sich in den Nieren von Nagetieren noch 48 h nach der Injektion nachweisen. Abstract Gadolinium‐based contrast agents (GBCAs...

Purpose: Targeting tumor blood vessels is an attractive therapy in glioblastoma (GBM) but the mechanism of action of these agents and how they modulate delivery of concomitant chemotherapy is not clear in humans. We sought to elucidate how bevacizumab modulates tumor vasculature and the impact those vascular changes have on drug delivery in patien...

Purpose: The first aim of this work is to present a novel deep convolution neural network (DCNN) multiplane approach and compare it to single-plane prediction of synthetic computed tomography (sCT) by using the real computed tomography (CT) as ground truth. The second aim is to demonstrate the feasibility of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based...

Purpose: To describe an unsupervised three-dimensional cardiac motion estimation network (CarMEN) for deformable motion estimation from two-dimensional cine MR images. Materials and methods: A function was implemented using CarMEN, a convolutional neural network that takes two three-dimensional input volumes and outputs a motion field. A smoothn...

Since the introduction of simultaneous PET/MRI in 2011, there have been significant advancements. In this review, we highlight several technical advancements that have been made primarily in attenuation and motion correction and discuss the status of multiple clinical applications using PET/MRI. This review is based on the experience at the first P...

Whole-body positron emission tomography (PET) scanners are not optimized for imaging small structures in the human brain. Several PET devices specifically designed for this task have been proposed either for stand-alone operation or as magnetic resonance (MR)-compatible inserts. The main distinctive features of some of the most recent concepts and...

Objectives: We aim to develop molecular fibrin imaging as a tool to stratify high risk atherosclerotic carotid plaques. Here, we describe our results with a fibrin-specific probe [ ⁶⁸ Ga]CM-246 in two different experimental settings: ex vivo imaging of carotid endarterectomy specimens and in vivo / ex vivo imaging of atherosclerotic plaque rupture...

Military personnel are often exposed to multiple instances of various types of head trauma. As a result, there has been increasing concern recently over identifying when head trauma has resulted in a brain injury and what, if any, long-term consequences those brain injuries may have. Efforts to develop equipment to protect soldiers from these long-...

Recently deep neural networks have been widely and successfully applied in computer vision tasks and attracted growing interests in medical imaging. One barrier for the application of deep neural networks to medical imaging is the need of large amounts of prior training pairs, which is not always feasible in clinical practice. This is especially tr...

Purpose: To compare the clinical performance of upper abdominal PET/DCE-MRI with and without concurrent respiratory motion correction (MoCo). Methods: MoCo PET/DCE-MRI of the upper abdomen was acquired in 44 consecutive oncologic patients and compared with non-MoCo PET/MRI. SUVmax and MTV of FDG-avid upper abdominal malignant lesions were assess...

Recently, an exhaustive examination of 11 state of the art MR-based attenuation correction (AC) concluded that there are currently a few methods showing similar results compared to the gold-standard, CT-based AC. While the study presented a thorough portfolio of metrics to quantify accuracy (bias) and quality, it lacked one of the most important me...