Syntermed releases NeuroQ version 3.5 for analysis, image display of brain FDG-PET scans

At the Alzheimer's Association 2010 International Conference (ICAD) July 10-14 in Honolulu, HI, Syntermed, Inc. launched NeuroQ™ version 3.5, a nuclear medicine quantitative software platform for analysis and image display of brain FDG-PET scans. NeuroQ can increase physician accuracy in diagnosing and differentiating the many types of dementia, compared to visual interpretation alone of FDG-PET. The update adds ten new features that improve performance, processing, speed, and quality control and is compatible with Syntermed Live™ for secure remote access to images and data.

“NeuroQ with Syntermed Live is especially attractive to companies conducting clinical trials. It offers a cost savings solution to quickly and securely manage data from the acquisition to the blind read sites, eliminating or minimizing the need for travel.”

The company is working on a module for NeuroQ to quantify PET amyloid imaging of the brain. Amyloid deposits in the brain are a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease.

Syntermed also announced it is collaborating with Avid Radiopharmaceuticals and building a database of normal brain AV-45 PET images to integrate into NeuroQ. AV-45 is a radiopharmaceutical contrast agent developed by AVID that distinguishes with PET imaging amyloid deposits in the brain of living patients. Currently, Alzheimer's can only be definitively diagnosed after death on autopsy when beta-amyloid plaque deposits are found.

Michael T. Lee, Chairman and CEO of Syntermed, said, "This is an exciting time for Syntermed. We have the leading tool available for use today to quantify FDG-PET scans. NeuroQ provides physicians and their patients the added measure of confidence to have an accurate differential diagnosis of dementia."

He added, "Our support for AV-45, as soon as it becomes commercially available, will offer physicians the next generation of a proven diagnostic tool to help them even more definitively diagnose Alzheimer's from other dementias and monitor its pathology."

There is a high rate of misdiagnosis of Alzheimer's, the most common form of dementia. More than 40% of patients diagnosed with early dementia who are found on autopsy not to have Alzheimer's disease, were misdiagnosed with AD during life. Other forms of dementia and conditions that can cause memory problems go undiagnosed and untreated.

FDG-PET is used in the diagnosis of dementia. Including all dementias, more than 30% of patients are misdiagnosed. Using FDG-PET in the diagnosis of dementia increases the accuracy of the diagnosis to approximately 90%. Expertise is required to interpret the complex and quantitative data in the scans. Most physicians do not frequently read these images.

Daniel Silverman, M.D., Ph.D., head of Neuronuclear Imaging section, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, said, "For patients whose clinical work-up has not led to a definitive diagnosis, brain PET is currently our single best tool to differentiate dementias, especially in the early stages of the disease. Adding quantitative analysis to PET can further improve the ability to diagnose the cause of the dementia."

NeuroQ goes beyond the visual read and provides valuable non-subjective diagnostic information. Metabolic levels in more than 240 pre-defined regions of the brain are rapidly compared to those in the normal database and quantified to show the degree of abnormality and statistical significance of the findings.

NeuroQ is the only brain-imaging program that can automatically analyze the difference between two FDG-PET studies of the same patient over time, creating a more exact region-by-region comparison throughout the brain.

It is compatible with Syntermed Live™, the company's nuclear lab shared remote communications system. Reading and referring physicians can share and review high-resolution images and diagnostic reports securely from any PC/MAC at any time or place.

For clinical trials of new Alzheimer's treatments or PET imaging agents, files from all sites can be transferred and securely stored, giving the core laboratory access to all data for analysis. Files are quickly and easily downloaded for both visual and quantitative blind reads.

Ken VanTrain, Syntermed President, said, "NeuroQ with Syntermed Live is especially attractive to companies conducting clinical trials. It offers a cost savings solution to quickly and securely manage data from the acquisition to the blind read sites, eliminating or minimizing the need for travel."

Daniel Silverman, M.D., Ph.D., director of UCLA Medical Center's Brain Imaging Clinic and Syntermed, developed NeuroQ. It was the first quantitative program cleared by the FDA for analyzing PET scans to assist with the differential diagnosis of dementia.

SOURCE Syntermed, Inc.