• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
Wednesday, September 27, 2023
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Science

Inflammatory complications of immunodeficiency disease may benefit from imaging technique

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
November 30, 2016
in Science
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram
IMAGE

Credit: (c) S.Jolles, University Hospital of Wales

A new proof of concept study has shown that an imaging technique more commonly used to assess cancer patients may also be of help in assessing disease and treatment effects in patients with inflammatory diseases. The study is published in Clinical & Experimental Immunology.

Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) is the commonest serious primary immunodeficiency of adults. Patients are not only unable to manufacture antibodies to protect them from infections but also suffer from inflammatory and autoimmune complications. CVID affects approximately 1 in 25,000 adults. While treatment with antibody replacement and antibiotics has significantly improved infections, the non-infectious inflammatory, autoimmune and malignant complications have emerged as major therapeutic challenges. One complication of CVID is called granulomatous lymphocytic interstitial lung disease (GLILD). This is a complex condition to diagnose and monitor as onset may be insidious leading to lung involvement, enlarged lymph-nodes and spleen. Currently, a combination of clinical features, laboratory markers, lung function measures and radiological investigations are used to diagnose and make treatment decisions about GLILD though there remains a lack of information to help clinicians determine the optimal frequency of testing and timing of treatment.

In this proof of concept study, Dr Stephen Jolles and colleagues from the University Hospital of Wales used an imaging technique called FDG PET-CT to simultaneously assess anatomical structure and metabolic activity in a patient with GLILD. FDG PET-CT imaging allows the detailed anatomical structure obtained by a CT scan to be overlaid and combined with PET images of rates of labelled glucose uptake into cells within the tissues; the clinical utility of which has already been proven in oncological imaging. However, FDG PET-CT's use to assess inflammatory disease is an emerging field and this paper is the first time that this technique has been employed to assess both anatomical and metabolic extent of the disease and to assess treatment response in the setting of GLILD.

The images (supplied) show that FDG PET-CT provides new insights into GLILD, showing widespread, high levels of metabolic activity not restricted to the lungs but affecting lymph nodes (even when these are normal in size) throughout the body before treatment. After treatment, clear improvements in both anatomical and functional activity can be observed. The combined FDG PET-CT demonstrates that GLILD is only the pulmonary facet of a highly metabolically active multisystem disease. The very high levels of metabolic activity may have implications for the development of autoimmunity and malignancy, both of which occur at higher frequency in patients with GLILD.

Larger studies are now needed to assess the potential role of this technology in the ongoing care of patients with GLILD and it is likely that it will be increasingly used in a wider range of inflammatory disorders.

Lead researcher Dr Stephen Jolles from the University Hospital of Wales said:

"Patients who develop granulomatous lymphocytic interstitial lung disease (GLILD) as a complication of common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) often have poorer outcomes. Given the multi-systemic nature of this disease, it is currently difficult for clinicians to accurately monitor and assess the optimal timing of treatment as well as the effect of treatment and its duration.

This study is the first time that the imaging technique, FDG PET-CT, has been used to assess the combined lung structure and metabolic activity in a patient with GLILD before and after treatment. The images are striking and enlightening in that they reveal the highly metabolically active multi-systemic nature of the disease. It remains to me amazing the ability of this technique to overlay structure with metabolic functional activity in this way."

###

Media Contact

Jennie Evans
[email protected]
44-020-301-95912

http://immunology.org

############

Story Source: Materials provided by Scienmag

Share12Tweet7Share2ShareShareShare1

Related Posts

Five or more hours of smartphone usage per day may increase obesity

July 25, 2019
IMAGE

NASA’s terra satellite finds tropical storm 07W’s strength on the side

July 25, 2019

NASA finds one burst of energy in weakening Depression Dalila

July 25, 2019

Researcher’s innovative flood mapping helps water and emergency management officials

July 25, 2019
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • blank

    Microbe Computers

    59 shares
    Share 24 Tweet 15
  • A pioneering study from Politecnico di Milano sheds light on one of the still poorly understood aspects of cancer

    35 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9
  • Fossil spines reveal deep sea’s past

    34 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9
  • Scientists go ‘back to the future,’ create flies with ancient genes to study evolution

    75 shares
    Share 30 Tweet 19

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

ETRI confirms possibility of wireless communication 40m underground in mine

A novel role discovered for vagus nerve

Patients who quit smoking after percutaneous coronary intervention do as well as non-smokers – unless they had smoked heavily

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 56 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In