Costas Giannakenas

University of Patras | UP · Department of Nuclear Medicine

Kümmell's disease (KD) is a rare clinical entity and includes patients, who after a trivial trauma and an asymptomatic period, develop a progressive vertebral body collapse and a painful kyphosis. The main pathologic eliciting event still remains unclear. Vertebral body collapse can be the result of infection, malignant neoplasia or trauma. It may...

Over 100 years ago, Dr Hermann Kümmell described a rare clinical entity in which patients, after a trivial trauma and an asymptomatic period, developed a progressive vertebral body collapse and a painful kyphosis. We present the case of a 31years old heavy labourer, fitting Kümmell's criteria. The patient referred to us in an incapacitated state, d...

An evaluation of mucociliary clearance, with the use of rhinoscintigraphy and other objectives and subjectives measures, in medically and surgically treated patients with chronic rhinosinusitis, as well in patients with or without nasal polyposis, can add to the understanding of ciliary function and its role in the pathogenesis of chronic rhinosinu...

Aim. Sestamibi is a substrate for Pgp, MRP1, which act as efflux pumps of cytotoxic drugs, resulting in drug resistance and chemotherapy failure. Thus far data indicated that Sestamibi uptake is influenced by bcl‐2 over‐expression. Sestamibi imaging can be used as prognostic factor predicting chemotherapy response in cancer patients. The aim of our...

Erdheim-Chester disease is a rare noninherited, non-Langerhans' cell histiocytosis, with multiorgan involvement. The skeleton is frequently involved in as many as 70-80% of all cases. In nearly half of the cases, there is an involvement of other organs such as the cardiovascular system, lung, kidneys, brain, and orbits. Extra-skeletal involvement i...

To investigate the effect of acquisition arc (180 degrees or 360 degrees ) and attenuation correction (AC), in artifact occurrence and image uniformity of myocardial perfusion SPECT studies in normal hearts. Twenty male and 44 female patients with primary hyperparathyroidism and low probability of resting perfusion abnormalities were analysed. Tc-s...

Mucociliary transport velocity (MTV) measured by rhinoscintigraphy is considered a reliable measure of mucociliary clearance, one of the mechanisms that are distorted in chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). The aim of this study was to investigate possible correlation of MTV with the severity of patients' symptoms. We have studied thirty-seven CRS patient...

Synovitis, acne, pustulosis, osteitis (SAPHO) syndrome is rare with yet unknown prevalence. The difficulty in recognizing the syndrome is due to the very wide diversity of its signs and symptoms, the lack of skin manifestations in many cases and to confusion in medical terminology in describing this syndrome. In this paper, we present two cases wit...

Aim: To examine the impact of CT attenuation correction (AC) and of the angular range of SPECT acquisition in myocardial perfusion studies of normal subjects at rest. Materials and Methods: Patients referred for parathyroid scans, with negative cardiologic history and normal resting ECG, were recruited. After exclusion of technically inadequate stu...

AIM: To determine the ability of scintigraphy with 99`"Tc-Sulesomab (LeukoScan®), to diagnose and localize periprosthetic septic lesions in patients with hip arthroplasty. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 21 patients with hip arthroplasty were studied between 2001-2004, for possible periprosthetic infection and septic loosening. Mean follow up was 4,4 years...

Aim: Investigating the prognostic value of brain perfusion SPECT, within the first few days after Subarachnoid Haemorrhage (SAH) and predicting subsequent development of symptomatic vasospasm and the clinical outcome were aims of the study. Material and method: Forty-two patients with SAH, aged 17-80 years, in a relatively good clinical condition (...

Brain Perfusion SPECT with 99m Tc-ECD in Patients with Spontaneous Subarachnoid Hemorrhage and clinical vasospasm. Abstract. Regional hypoperfusion is a very frequent complication of subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) and is related to vasospasm. In order to evaluate the diagnostic contribution of brain SPECT imaging with 99mTc-ECD in vasospasm afte...

Full text: Sestamibi is a transport substrate for both Pgp and MRP, which are closely related to MDR (multidrug resistance), a significant factor for chemotherapy treatment failure in many cancer patients. Imaging with Tc99m-Sestamibi has been studied for predicting chemotherapy response mainly in breast and lung cancer. A few studies exist regardi...

SUMMARY Metastases to the skeleton are very common in cancer patients and although therapeutic regimens, including hormonal manipulation, cytotoxic chemotherapy and external beam therapy may alleviate the accompanying pain, the quality of life in these patients and the ultimate prognosis for patients with bone metastases is poor. The ability of an...

In the present study different protocols of parathyroid scintigraphy, as well as kinetic aspects of Tc-99m Sestamibi (MIBI) and Tc-99m Tetrofosmin (TF) are evaluated and compared. Twenty eight patients with hyperparathyroidism were studied with both MIBI and TF. The diagnostic efficacy of thyroid subtraction, double phase and the combination of the...

Summary Skeletal metastases are very common in cancer patients and although therapeutic regimens including hormonal manipulation, cytotoxic chemotherapy and external beam therapy may alleviate the accompanying pain the quality of life in these patients and the ultimate prognosis for patients with bone metastases is poor. The ability of an osteophil...

CONSECUTIVE Q-SPECT STUDIES IN CEMENTLESS TOTAL HIP ARTHROPLASTY. 4-YEAR FOLLOW-UP. Purpose." A continuing clinical prospective study is presented in midterm fixation of cementless total hip implants and prognostic value of Q-SPECT analysis of periprosthetlc 99mTc-MDF uptake are evaluated. Material-Methods- 34 patients. 12 male and 22 female (33-76...

We evaluated the effectiveness of Re-186-HEDP in 25 patients with painful metastatic bone disease. Twenty-five patients with known prostatic (n = 19), non-small-cell lung cancer (n = 1) and breast cancer (n = 5) and multiple confirmed skeletal metastases were studied. All were taking analgesics daily (nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs/opiates). R...

The objective of the present study was to investigate the efficacy of (111)In-DTPA-octreotide (OC) for in vivo scintigraphic imaging of these relatively uncommon tumors. Thirteen patients (9 males, 4 females, mean age 59 years) with known sarcomatous lesions were studied. All patients had known lesions as demonstrated by previous investigation with...

The targeting potential of three different monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) was assessed in patients with ovarian cancer. HMFG1, OC-125 and H17E2 labelled with 111In or 123I were evaluated prospectively for their ability to localize ovarian tumour. Forty two patients with ovarian cancer, aged 40-78 years (median = 58 years) were studied using OC-125 (n...

The efficacy of 99mTc-tetrofosmin for the detection of parathyroid lesions was investigated prospectively in patients with hyperparathyroidism referred for surgical treatment. Twenty-seven patients with primary and 18 with tertiary hyperparathyroidism were studied. Twelve patients had undergone one or more previous neck explorations. Static imaging...

Malignant esophageal fistula is a devastating complication presenting a challenging problem in terms of occluding the fistula and restoring esophageal patency. Among 29 patients with unresectable esophageal tumors, there were 7 males and 2 females (mean age 63.2 years) who presented with esophageal fistulae: 2 bronchoesophageal, 3 esophagomediastin...

Ectopic ACTH secretion due to occult carcinoid tumours is an occasional cause of ACTH dependent Cushing's syndrome. In many cases the ectopic source may be obvious, but sometimes no obvious source is evident, the so-called occult ectopic syndrome. Due to their small size, localization of such occult tumours, particularly bronchial carcinoids, may b...

Following percutaneous lung biopsy (PLB), we used fibrin glue as a sealant in 26 patients for the purpose of decreasing the incidence of pneumothorax. All 26 patients (group A) had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The results for group A were compared with a control group of 32 patients (group B), also with COPD and in whom fibrin glue...

Evaluate the effectiveness of fibrin glue for the embolic occlusion of needle tracks following percutaneous lung biopsy (PLB). Twenty-six rabbits underwent computed tomography (CT)-guided PLB using a coaxial system consisting of 19- and 22-gauge needles. Thirteen rabbits were used as controls (group A). In 13 other rabbits (group B), fibrin glue la...

We examined the efficacy of fibrin glue in eliminating complications following percutaneous needle biopsy. Lung biopsy was performed in ten rabbits and liver biopsy in five, using a coaxial needle system. Fibrin glue mixed with 131I-labeled fibrinogen and contrast medium was used to embolize the needle track. Scintigraphy showed that radionuclide a...