Nuclear Medicine News and Research

RSS

Nuclear medicine is a branch or specialty of medicine and medical imaging that uses radioactive isotopes (radionuclides) and relies on the process of radioactive decay in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. In nuclear medicine procedures, radionuclides are combined with other chemical compounds or pharmaceuticals to form radiopharmaceuticals.

Discovery of fungi that uses radioactivity as an energy source

Scientists have long assumed that fungi exist mainly to decompose matter into chemicals that other organisms can then use.

24 May 2007

FDG-PET imaging predicts lung cancer patients' response to chemotherapy

An earlier indication of whether chemotherapy benefits non-small cell lung cancer patients, provided by positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, can guide doctors in offering them better care, according to researchers in the May Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

10 May 2007

Average U.S. resident is exposed to nearly six times as much radiation from medical devices than in 1980

Data from the first large-scale study of U.S. population radiation exposure since 1989 show the annual per capita radiation dose increased 5.9 times, from 0.54 millisieverts in 1980 to 3.2 millisieverts in 2006.

18 Apr 2007

Early stage pancreatic cancer expresses antigen targeted by Immunomedics' PAM4 antibody

Immunomedics has reported in an oral presentation at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) that the antigen targeted by the humanized PAM4 antibody is expressed in early stage pancreatic cancer specimens, a stage before the tumor becomes invasive.

18 Apr 2007

Heart muscle cell death is an active and ongoing process in heart failure

Using a nuclear medicine technique and molecular imaging to "see" programmed cell loss, the body's normal way of getting rid of unneeded or abnormal cells, may help in early identification of those individuals who are at risk of developing heart failure, say researchers in the April Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

3 Apr 2007

Research agreement to advance new imaging technology

The University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) and T.I.E.S., LLC, a Rochester-based start-up company, have entered into a research partnership to evaluate a new technology that could ultimately represent a major advance in medical imaging.

29 Mar 2007

Targeted tumor therapy has paramount consequences for future expansion of nuclear medicine

Targeted tumor therapy lobs toxic payloads directly into tumors to destroy cancer cells while leaving normal cells unharmed.

20 Oct 2006

Patients receiving treatment with radioisotopes may trigger security alarms

Patients receiving treatment with radioisotopes should be warned that they may trigger radiation alarms, say doctors in this week's British Medical Journal.

3 Aug 2006

Prognostic stratification of obese patients by Stress 99mTc-Tetrofosmin Myocardial Perfusion Imaging

Researchers identified an accurate method that may detect whether obese individuals have a low, intermediate or high risk of coronary artery disease, the leading cause of death in the United States, notes a report in the August issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

2 Aug 2006

Yttrium-90 to control hepatocarcinoma

The University Hospital at the University of Navarra is the only centre throughout the entire Spanish state for the treatment of liver tumours by means of radioembolisation and the one with the greatest accumulated experiences in the treatment throughout Europe.

10 Jul 2006

The solitary pulmonary nodule - malignant or benign?

A new study published in the journal Respiration shows good overall diagnostic accuracy of technetium-99m (99mTc)-depreotide single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) in separating malignant from benign solitary pulmonary nodules (SPNs) of indeterminate origin.

19 Jun 2006

Japanese researchers using PET imaging detect the beginnings of atherosclerosis

Using positron emission tomography (PET), the medical isotope 15O-water and cold pressor tests, Japanese researchers were able to detect the beginnings of atherosclerosis - before the disease became clinically evident.

9 Jun 2006

Radionuclide therapy with chemotherapy effective in treating prostate cancer

A new treatment for prostate cancer may provide a distinct advantage over other conventional protocols and induce actual regression of the disease - not just relief from bone pain or a limited control of the disease.

9 Jun 2006

PET imaging of cerebral cannabinoid CB1 receptors with [11C]JHU75528

A team of Johns Hopkins researchers developed a new radiotracer - a radioactive substance that can be traced in the body - to visualize and quantify the brain's cannabinoid receptors by positron emission tomography (PET).

6 Jun 2006

Sleeping pill rouses people in a permanent vegetative state

South African researchers have found that a drug commonly used as a sleeping pill can temporarily revive people in a permanent vegetative state to the point where they can have conversations.

25 May 2006

High glucose-uptake tumors can be identified with PET scans

Cervical cancers that take up a lot of blood sugar, or glucose, are more resistant to treatment than those that are less glucose-hungry, according to research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

4 Apr 2006

Study shows that cell transplantation therapy may improve brain receptor function in patients who suffered from cerebral stroke

Japanese researchers have found a piece of the "missing link" about how bone marrow stromal cells restore lost neurologic function when transplanted into animals exhibiting central nervous system disorders, according to a study in the March issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

21 Mar 2006

Study offers piece of missing link needed in understanding receptor function possibly providing safe, ethical source for replacing brain cells

19 Mar 2006

Prevalence and patterns of physiologic muscle uptake detected with whole-body PET

Muscle activity - from turning a page in a book to shoveling snow - impacts positron emission tomography results, says study in journal of nuclear medicine technology.

9 Mar 2006

PET and MR imaging reveals white matter degeneration in Huntington's

Using both brain function (PET) and anatomical structure (MR) imaging studies, Italian researchers - within the context of an Italian-British collaboration - discovered that degenerative and dysfunctional events occur in individuals many years before the onset of Huntington's disease - particularly in the brain's white matter - an area not previously considered primarily involved with the disease.

24 Feb 2006