20756 - Imaging Diagnostics and Radiotherapy (AK-A)

Learning outcomes

The course includes lectures on Radiology, Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine. The aim of the course is to enable the students to become confident with the clinical indications of the various imaging and therapeutic procedures. In particular, the course aims to provide knowledge on how to choose the most appropriate technique in radiology (conventional, vascular and interventional radiology, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound). Regarding radiotherapy, students are expected to learn the basic principles of the effects of radiation in biology, their use for treatment in oncology and in specific non-neoplastic conditions as well as the most relevant applications (brachitherapy, transdermal radiotherapy, the use of CT for radiotherapy planning, the integration with other diagnsotic procedures, such as PET, MRI, to optimize treatment efficacy reducing toxicity).

Nuclear Medicine lectures aim to provide knowledge on the potential utility of functional imaging (scintigraphy, SPECT, PET/CT) and their clinical applications and additional value in the diagnostic work-up.

Students are expected to acquire knowledge on how to choose the most appropriate radiological procedure to answer the diagnostic query, optimizing the cost/benefit ratio in order to reduce the number of inappropriate procedures with related toxicity and costs. Moreover, students will be aware of the need of a multidisciplinary approach for an optimal management of the oncological patient that is addressed to radiotherapy and of the criteria to choose the most appropriate nuclear medicine procedure and their additional value with respect to conventional imaging modalities.

Course contents

Basic Nuclear Medicine Notions

- Basic physics and radiopharmacy notions

- Pros and Cons of nuclear medicine procedures as compared to other imaging techniques
Scintigraphy
- bone scintigraphy
- renal scintigraphy
- thyroid scintigraphy
- lung scintigraphy
SPECT:
myocardial SPECT
brain SPECT

PET/TC:
-imaging with 18F-FDG tracers

-imaging with non 18F-FDG tracers

Basic principles of radionuclide therapy

Readings/Bibliography

1. Clinical Nuclear Medicine. Editors: Hans-Jungen Biersack, Leonard M.Freeman. Springer
2. Nuclear Oncology. Editors: Cumali Aktolum, Stanley J. Goldsmith. Wolters Kluwer
3. Principles and practice of PET/CT. part 1 and 2. Technologist's Guide. Official publication of the European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
4. Taylor, Schuster, Alazraki. Medicina Nucleare. Edizioni Minerva Medica

5. Compendio di diagnostica medico nucleare. Esculapio, 2023

Teaching methods

Oral lectures and clinical case discussion

Assessment methods

Oral examination: Partial scores obtained by discussing with all the Professors of the course will determine the final score.  Limited knowledge and critical analysis → 18-19;
Basic knowledge, basic critical analysis→ 20-24;
Broad knowledge, independent and critical analysis, appropiate and detailed oral presentation → 25-29;
Exhaustive knowledge, independent and critical analysis, full ability to take decisions, appropiate terminolgy → 30-30L.

Teaching tools

Power Point presentation

Office hours

See the website of Valentina Ambrosini