Positron Emission Tomography News and Research

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Feds boost rather than cut payments to Medicare Advantage plans

The insurance industry won a major lobbying victory Monday after the Obama administration backtracked on an earlier plan to cut Medicare Advantage payments to insurers by 2.2 percent in 2014 and instead decided to give them a 3.3 percent increase.

3 Apr 2013

Navidea commences enrollment in NAV4694 Phase 2b study to detect erebral β-amyloid plaque

Navidea Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on precision diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals, today announced that enrollment has commenced in its Phase 2b, open-label, safety and efficacy positron emission tomography imaging study of [18F]NAV4694 for detection of cerebral β-amyloid plaque in subjects diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment.

28 Mar 2013

Study provides understanding of root causes of clinical variability in anxiety disorders

New findings from nonhuman primates suggest that an overactive core circuit in the brain, and its interaction with other specialized circuits, accounts for the variability in symptoms shown by patients with severe anxiety.

26 Mar 2013

Possible alternative to biopsy discovered for renal cancer diagnosis

Combining positron emission tomography scanning with iodine-124 (124I)–girentuximab may offer an effective noninvasive method of diagnosing clear cell renal cell carcinoma in patients who present with a renal mass, US study results suggest.

20 Feb 2013

MILabs VECTor/CT installed by Molecular Imaging Center Antwerp (MICA) in Belgium

MILabs B.V. is pleased to announce that the Molecular Imaging Center Antwerp (MICA) in Belgium has installed a MILabs VECTor/CT to enhance their portfolio of pre-clinical nuclear oncology and neurology imaging and research capabilities.

18 Feb 2013

Stress and mental illness: an interview with Professor Akira Sawa

As a psychiatrist I am interested in how stress may play a role in the pathology of adult mental disorders. You may know that most of the major mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, mood-disorder, substance abuse or even anxiety disorder, become prominent in early adulthood.

14 Feb 2013

Familial psychosis risk linked to prefrontal dopamine dysfunction

People at familial risk for psychosis have attenuated dopamine stress modulation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, according to a recent in vivo imaging study.

8 Feb 2013

PET with 11C-PIB can positively visualize amyloid deposits in the heart

While amyloid imaging may now be most associated with detecting plaques in the brain, it has the potential to change the way cardiac amyloidosis is diagnosed. According to first-of-its-kind research published in the February issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, positron emission tomography (PET) with 11C-PIB can positively visualize amyloid deposits in the heart.

5 Feb 2013

Alzheimer's Association, SNMMI publish appropriate use criteria for brain amyloid imaging with PET

Only recently has it become possible to create high-quality images of the brain plaques characteristic of Alzheimer's disease in living people through positron emission tomography (PET). Even so, questions remain about what can be learned from these PET images and which people should have this test.

28 Jan 2013

UCLA researchers identify abnormal tau proteins associated with sports-related concussions

Sports-related concussions and mild traumatic brain injuries have grabbed headlines in recent months, as the long-term damage they can cause becomes increasingly evident among both current and former athletes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that millions of these injuries occur each year.

23 Jan 2013

Neurophysiologic mechanisms of deep-brain stimulation unveiled

The beneficial effects of subthalamic nucleus stimulation in patients with Parkinson’s disease are partly down to compensatory activation of nonmotor dopamine pathways during exercise, research suggests.

22 Jan 2013

Amyloid clue to Parkinson’s dementia

Study findings link amyloid β burden to future cognitive decline in patients with Parkinson’s disease.

22 Jan 2013

Dopamine synthesis increased in patients at high risk for psychosis

UK study results show that patients at ultra-high risk for psychosis have elevated dopamine synthesis capacity in the dorsal striatum.

17 Jan 2013

Aggressive surveillance questionable for eye melanoma recurrence

Patients treated for primary choroidal or ciliary body melanoma may not always benefit from an aggressive surveillance strategy for the detection of metastatic disease, caution US researchers.

14 Jan 2013

18F-FDG PET/CT may become important distant staging modality in patients with breast cancer

New research published in the January issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine shows that 18F-fludeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) imaging offers significant prognostic stratification information at initial staging for patients with locally advanced breast cancer. When compared to conventional imaging, 18F-FDG PET/CT more accurately showed lesions in the chest, abdomen and bones in a single session, changing management for more than 50 percent of the patients in the study.

3 Jan 2013

Electroconvulsive therapy releases opiate-like substances

Researchers used electricity on certain regions in the brain of a patient with chronic, severe facial pain to release an opiate-like substance that's considered one of the body's most powerful painkillers.

3 Jan 2013

New cost-effective, less invasive MRI method for diagnosis of dementia

A new way to use MRI scans may help determine whether dementia is Alzheimer's disease or another type of dementia, according to new research published in the December 26, 2012, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

27 Dec 2012