Introduction
The Nuclear Medicine-PET Department is located on the -1 floor of the University Hospital of Bellvitge. It is managed jointly by the University Hospital of Bellvitge (Catalan Health Institute) and the Diagnostic Imagining Institute. It is answerable to the Clinical Diagnostic Imaging Management of the Southern Metropolitan Regional Management. It is a class-2 radioactive facility authorised by CSN/SCAR (IR-B/-IRA-2629). It includes its own Nuclear pharmacy unit authorised by the Generalitat de Catalunya Health Department as a functional unit that is also linked to the Pharmacy Department of the University Hospital of Bellvitge.
It is also a teaching unit that is accredited by the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality, with specialist Nuclear Medicine healthcare training places for physicians and Nuclear pharmacy places for pharmacists, chemists and biochemists, and it works with specialist professors in Radiodiagnosis, Radiophysics and Hospital Pharmacy. It has the specific support of the Physics and Radiation Protection Department of the Catalan Institute of Oncology-Hospitalet.
For the second year running (2017 and 2018), the Department’s 2 PET-CT teams have passed the annual accreditation requirements of the prestigious EARL programme by the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM Research Ltd) as a Centre of Excellence in PET-CT. This accreditation is a prestigious international guarantee of the quality of its research activity, which encourages its participation in clinical trials. Most of these clinical trials involve new oncological treatments in which the PET-CT technique provides an objective response assessment. A growing field of new indications in research is cognitive impairment from suspected Alzheimer’s Disease.
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Team
Specialist Doctors
Head of Nursing Area
Nursing Supervisor
Relevant aspects
Procedure
- All types of procedure are conducted, although paediatric patients are currently exceptional. 20,000 Nuclear Medicine procedures were conducted in 2016, of which 12,000 were non-PET diagnosis (functional laboratory tests included), 6,00 were PET diagnosis, and 1139 were radioguided surgery and treatments.
We are a centre of reference in the following procedures:
- PET/TC with different radiopharmaceuticals (F18-FDG, F18-Amiloide, F18-Pujol and F18-DOPA)
- Radioguided Surgery (sentinel lymph node in tumors)
- Gammagraphy for the study of bile acid absorption (SeHCAT)
- Gammagraphy of tagged white blood cells
- Platelet kinetics
- Radiometabolic therapy of differentiated thyroid cancer with I-131, bone metastasis from prostate cancer with Ra-223, and metastatic neuroendocrine tumors with Lu-177-Dotatate.
nventory of technology
- PET/TC equipment:
2 Discovery ST Model (4-cut CT).
GEHealthcare (2003)
Discovery IQ Model (16-cut CT, 5-ring PET).
GE Healthcare (2016)
- Gamma cameras and SPECT-CT:
Skylight model gamma camera. Phillips (2004)
MPS single-head gamma camera. GEHealthcare. (2006)
Brightview model SPECT-CT. (Flat Panel).Phillips (2010)
SPECT-CT Discovery Pro model. (8-cut CT). GE Healthcare (2016)
- Combined radiopharmaceutical dispensing / injection system-TEMA PET:
1 Karl dispenser and 2 Rad-Inject mini infusion pumps.
- Radioguided Surgery Probes: 3
- Others:
AW Server, Diverse workstations (AW, Xeleris),
1 Codonics Virtua I Robotic CD Recorder, Activimeters, Environmental and Contamination Monitors, Gamma Counter and Pou Counter.
Equipment
- Nuclear Pharmacy and Laboratory Unit (including cell tagging room and PET-dispenser room).
- Outpatient multi-purpose and metabolic radiotherapy room (including cell tagging room and PET-dispenser room).
- Epilepsy room (on floor 9, shared with the Neurology department).
- Two high-dose metabolic radiotherapy rooms that require admission and isolation (in the Brachytherapy unit of the Catalan Institute of Oncology at Duran i Reynals Hospital).
Research
Lines of research
- PET-CT (especially in oncological indications)
- Radiometabolic Therapy (Theragnostics)
Main Publications
- Reynés-Llompart G, Gámez-Cenzano C, Vercher-Conejero JL, Sabaté-Llobera A, Calvo-Malvar N, Martí-Climent JM. Phantom, clinical, and texture indices evaluation and optimization of a penalized-likelihood image reconstruction method (Q.Clear) on a BGO PET/CT scanner. Med Phys. 2018 Jul;45(7):3214-3222
- Sabaté-Llobera A, Gràcia-Sánchez L, Reynés-Llompart G, Ramos E, Lladó L, Robles J, Serrano T, Mestres-Martí J, Gámez-Cenzano C. Differences on metabolic behavior between intra and extrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas at (18)F-FDG-PET/CT: prognostic implication of metabolic parameters and tumor markers. Clin Transl Oncol. 2018 Jul 18.
- Cuervo G, Rombauts A, Caballero Q, Grau I, Pujol M, Ardanuy C, Berbel D, Gudiol C, Sánchez-Salado JC, Ruiz-Majoral A, Sbraga F, Gracia-Sánchez L, Peña C, Carratalà J. Twenty-Year Secular Trends in Infective Endocarditis in a Teaching Hospital. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2018 Jul 27;5(8):ofy183.
- Reynés-Llompart G, Gámez-Cenzano C, Romero-Zayas I, Rodríguez-Bel L, Vercher-Conejero JL, Martí-Climent JM. Performance Characteristics of the Whole-Body Discovery IQ PET/CT System. J Nucl Med. 2017 Jul;58(7):1155-1161.
- Mañá J, Rubio-Rivas M, Villalba N, Marcoval J, Iriarte A, Molina-Molina M, Llatjos R, García O, Martínez-Yélamos S, Vicens-Zygmunt V, Gámez C, Pujol R, Corbella X. Multidisciplinary approach and long-term follow-up in a series of 640 consecutive patients with sarcoidosis: Cohort study of a 40-year clinical experience at a tertiary referral center in Barcelona, Spain. Medicine (Baltimore). 2017 Jul;96(29):e7595.
Education
Degree education
Faculty of Medicine. University of Barcelona. Associate professors include Dr Bajén, Dr Benítez and Dr Gámez.
Advance Cycle of Diagnostic Imaging Techniques. Bonanova School. Professors include Dr Palomar and the 2 specialists in Nuclear pharmacy, Ms Romero and Ms Gil.
Master's degrees and accredited courses
- Nuclear Medicine residency. Tutors: Dr Bajén and Dr Benítez.
- Nuclear Pharmacy FIR/QIR. Tutor: I. Gil.
- University Master’s Degree in Healthcare Management.
- International University of Catalonia. With the collaboration of Dr Gámez.
Location
Main Building at Bellvitge University Hospital
c/ Feixa Llarga, sn.
08907 L'Hospitalet de Llobregat. Barcelona
Floor -1
Telephone number 93 260 76 20 | 93 264 00 36
General: serveimedicinanuclear@bellvitgehospital.cat
PET: petidi@bellvitgehospital.cat
Clinical trial: bellvitge.pet.trials@idi.gencat.cat