Objective: It is a well-known fact that positron emission tomography (PET) is an effective tool in the assessment of thyroid focal lesions, however only few studies so far have investigated its role in monitoring of autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITDs). The aim of this study is to assess if PET scan may be useful for the assessment of the thyroid gland in patients with an AITD—Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Methods: We evaluated twenty subjects with diagnosed Hashimoto's thyroiditis (proven by presence of elevated thyroid antibodies level and by thyroid imaging). The maximum standardized uptake value (SUV-max) of the thyroid parenchyma was measured using 18 F-FDG-PET/CT. Control group consisted of patients who have been in carcinoma remission for other reasons than thyroid cancer and who had been investigated by PET scan to exclude carcinoma recurrence. All control group subjects had their thyroid glands intact, none of them had a medical history of thyroid disease including thyroid nodules. AITDs had been excluded in all control group subjects. STATISTICA 13.1 software was used for statistical analysis. Results: Results: The SUV-max was significantly higher in patients with an AITD than in healthy subjects (median SUV-max 3.94 vs. 1.95; p = 0.005). Conclusions: 18 F-FDG-PET/CT scan may differentiate normal thyroid parenchyma from the diffused inflammatory changes of the thyroid gland in patients with AITDs. However, the researchers must be continued.

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused an increase in the demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) and disruptions in production chains, resulting in an acute shortage of PPE. A possible solution to this problem was additive manufacturing (AM) technology -allowing for a quick start of the production of PPE and potentially able to meet the demand until the production is restored. In addition, AM allows for the production of PPE prototypes with potentially greater comfort of use or degree of protection. In order to assess the production of PPE in AM during the COVID-19 pandemic, previously published articles in this field were analyzed. After analyzing abstracts and full texts, 30 original works were selected from the initially collected 487 articles. Based on the analyzed literature, it was found that there are not enough studies comparing traditional and AM PPE as well as not enough comparisons of the different types of AM PPE with each other. In many cases, researchers focused only on the subjective assessment of the comfort of using PPE, without assessing their effectiveness in preventing infections. Despite that, AM has a great potential to quickly produce lacking PPE. Respirators and shields made by AM were rated by the vast majority of users as comfortable to wear. Some of the respirators could be adapted to a specific user, by designing on the basis of a face scan or after warming up the finished print and modeling the shape.

Aromatherapy decreased the autonomic response to a painful stimulus by lowering ΔHR%, but did not affect the perception of pain reported by VAS.