An observational study in Cardiovascular Disease Other, sponsored by IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna. Completed at 1 site in Italy. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-01-14.
Sponsored by IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna · Observational
The goal of this single-center observational study is to retrospectively evaluate incidental findings at the cardiovascular level in a selection of patients referred to the O.U. of Nuclear Medicine of Policlinco S.Orsola-Malpighi who underwent a PET/CT investigation.
In particular, the present study is aimed to explore in such patients occasional findings of hypercapturing radiopharmaceutical findings specifically referred to:
Patients who performed PET/CT examination at the Sant'Orsola-Malpighi Nuclear Medicine O.U. during the period between 01/01/2017 and 31/12/2019 will be included in this registry. Any cardiovascular events that occurred within the Sant'Orsola-Malpighi Polyclinic setting and up to 3 months after the date of the PET/CT scan will be subsequently evaluated.
The present study aims to investigate the role of PET/CT investigation in the detection of abnormal ancillary findings, in this case of the cardiovascular type. This aspect, at first glance of secondary importance with respect to the reasons why a patient undergoes this diagnostic examination, is actually of some importance, since early detection of some significant incidental findings (otherwise misrecognized because they are not related to any symptomatic cortex) can often negatively influence several patient-related factors:
All data of patients referred to the U.O. of Nuclear Medicine of Policlinico S.Orsola-Malpighi who underwent a PET/CT investigation from 01/01/2017 to 31/12/2019 will be collected. Of these patients, the biographical data, clinical news, biochemical tests, any other imaging investigations (CT, echocardiography, MRI) will be collected. Within the population, patients who, upon review and anonymization of PET/CT images, show significant radiotracer hyperfixation at the cardiovascular level will be identified. Incidental findings referable to:
The computerized approach of the study involves the following steps. Starting from the computerized database that collects the main clinical-anamnestic information of all patients afferent to the Nuclear Medicine Cluster of Policlinico S.Orsola-Malpighi (ASTRIM), specific queries will be created for automatic filtering by keywords of only the patients of interest, specifically:
This initial search will be complemented by a second selection of patients whose PET/CT report contains keywords that may point to the presence of hypermetabolic findings at the cardiac level. By entering keywords such as "pacemaker," "device," "electrocatheter," "atrial," "atrial fibrillation," and "amyloidosis" on the ERIS computer system, it will be possible to quickly identify all patients with suspicious findings at the cardiac level and reported by the nuclear physician on the validated report. In addition, the names of patients with intracardiac devices followed up at the Cardio-Thoracic-Vascular Pole of Policlinico S.Orsola-Malpighi will be provided; of them, it will be possible to extrapolate those who underwent PET/CT during the period taken into consideration of the study. Therefore, it is estimated that from a total database of approximately 35,000-40,000 examinations, about a thousand patients will be selected through the procedures described above. From the excluded patients with sufficient recorded clinical data, control groups matched for age, sex, and indication for evaluation by PET/CT will be produced.
Therefore, an initial analysis will be conducted in describing the selected group of patients with cardiovascular-type findings, analyzing the uptake patterns and semi-quantitative parameters (Standardized Uptake Value, SUV) and comparing them with the control group.
Then we will conduct through computerized data from three company databases (ERIS, Online Medical Records and the Cardio-Thoracic-Vascular Pole Implantable Cardiac Device Carriers Registry), a maximum 3-month monitoring aimed at identifying any hospital admissions for cardiovascular reasons justified by the previously found PET/CT finding.
The following data will be evaluated for each patient:
The study is observational, noninterventional in nature. Patients were treated according to clinical practice in accordance with the physician's judgment and the information in the Technical Data Sheet of each individual Radiopharmaceutical.
Descriptive analysis will be conducted using appropriate statistics: Student's t-test, chi-square test. Significance will be achieved with p-values\<0.05. Data will be presented for the population considering all patients included in the study.
The objective of the study is to search for incidental findings in an unselected population of patients who have undergone a PET/CT investigation. The estimated sample size will be about 1,000 patients, drawn from a total database that should include the totality of PET/CT investigations performed at the O.U. of Nuclear Medicine in Bologna and is estimated at about 35,000-45,000 examinations.
4,904 studies on the registry are indexed under Cardiovascular Diseases; 919 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 1,000 is above the median of 573 across 1,485 observational studies indexed under Cardiovascular Diseases.
Browse Cardiovascular Diseases studies →IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna is the lead sponsor of 493 studies on the registry; 273 are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Patients who performed PET/CT examinations at the Sant'Orsola-Malpighi Nuclear Medicine OU in the period between 01/01/2017 and 31/12/2019. Based on the services provided, it is estimated about 35,000-45,000 total examinations. Of these, through the infortmatic approach described just above, only patients of interest will be selected: an estimated 1,000. It should be noted that in the event that each patient has performed more than one PET/CT scan for the purpose of the study, a different patient ID will be identified for each investigation performed.
Exclusion Criteria:
Prevalence of all incidental cardiovascular findings hypercapturing 18-fluorodeoxyglucose and not justified by history
The primary objective of the study is to assess the prevalence of all incidental cardiovascular findings hypercapturing the radiopharmaceutical and not justified by history, with subsequent characterization of the sites in relation to the indication for performing PET-CT.
Time frame: At enrollment
incidence of hospitalization for cardiovascular causes in subjects with incidental findings hypercapturing the radiopharmaceutical, compared with subjects without such findings compared with negative subjects
The secondary objective of the study is to evaluate the incidence of hospitalization for cardiovascular causes in subjects with incidental findings hypercapturing 18-FDG, compared with subjects without such findings compared with negative subjects. The analysis will be limited to patients followed at Policlinico S. Orsola Malpighi for a period of not less than 3 months after the PET/CT scan was performed, or who presented with a cardiovascular event within that time window.
Time frame: From enrollment to 3 months after
This study is completed, as verified in Nov 2024. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.
Sign in to followQuestions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.
Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.
Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.
IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna