Positron Emission Tomography (PET) News and Research

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New imaging analysis techniques to probe causes of dyslexia

Using sophisticated new software that integrates a variety of imaging methods, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center researchers will probe the mystery of what causes dyslexia with a four-year, $2.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

20 Sep 2004

Discovery of dopamine terminal injury in brains of people with HIV dementia

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered a key mechanism in the brains of people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) dementia.

20 Sep 2004

BNCT treatment has had an excellent response in a patient with head and neck cancer

A Finnish research group has been the first in the world to publish an article in which BNCT treatment has had an excellent response in a patient with head and neck cancer for whom there was no other treatment available.

14 Sep 2004

Enhanced technology with improved features drives the mobile medical imaging equipment market

The increasing demand for digitisation among hospitals and high price of static modalities are driving demand for mobile medical imaging equipment.

8 Sep 2004

Advances in biomedical imaging could lead to more sensitive screening tests for cancer-fighting drugs

Advances in biomedical imaging are allowing UC Davis researchers to use mice more effectively to study cancers comparable to human disease. The system can distinguish different stages of cancer and could lead to more sensitive screening tests for cancer-fighting drugs.

9 Aug 2004

PET is a more accurate way to diagnose recurrent melanoma than the present, standard procedures

A new study using positron emission tomography (PET) determined PET is a more accurate way to diagnose recurrent melanoma than the present, standard procedures.

5 Aug 2004

Overactive brain circuit brings on depression

A brain imaging study by the NIH's National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has found that an emotion-regulating brain circuit is overactive in people prone to depression – even when they are not depressed.

5 Aug 2004

Positron emission tomography offers a better way to observe the damage that strokes and neurodegenerative diseases wreak on brain cells

A laser-based microscopy technique may have settled a long-standing debate among neuroscientists about how brain cells process energy

2 Jul 2004

Promising new method for the assessment of ischemic heart disease

Despite recent decreases in mortality, heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States.

21 Jun 2004

New whole body positron emission tomography (PET) imaging allows scientists to watch as immune system respond to tumors or infection

Compared to the snapshot views of the immune system from tumor biopsies or blood assays, this whole body imaging allows scientists to track how the immune response changes, and the tumor or infection responds, throughout the different phases of immune response and over long periods of time.

15 Jun 2004

Expansion of Medicare coverage of positron emission tomography to include some Medicare beneficiaries with suspected Alzheimer’s disease

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced today that it intends to expand Medicare coverage of positron emission tomography (PET) to include some Medicare beneficiaries with suspected Alzheimer’s disease.

15 Jun 2004

Compulsive hoarding study could improve diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders

A PET imaging study conducted at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute indicates the neurobiology of America's estimated 1 million compulsive hoarders differs significantly from people with other obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms. The findings indicate that different medications could improve treatment success.

2 Jun 2004

British cancer charities call for improved lung cancer care

Today, MPs are being urged to support cancer charities' call for the provision of modern equipment vital to the treatment of people living with lung cancer, six months after the Government first promised to produce a national framework.

17 May 2004

Gambling increases level of brain chemical

Researchers, using a new combination of techniques, have discovered that dopamine levels in our brains vary the most in situations where we are unsure if we are going to be rewarded, such as when we are gambling or playing the lottery.

7 May 2004

Gene therapy helps alcoholic rats

As a follow up to previous work showing that gene therapy can reduce drinking in rats trained to prefer alcohol, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have used the same technique to cut drinking in rats with a genetic predisposition for heavy alcohol consumption.

5 May 2004

Gene therapy may delay Alzheimer progression

Results from a preliminary eight-patient study of gene therapy for Alzheimer’s disease are positive enough to justify a larger clinical trial, Mark H. Tuszynski, M.D., Ph.D., reported April 27 at the 56th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology. Dr. Tuszynski says that a larger trial is being planned at a major medical center in Chicago.

30 Apr 2004

PET imaging has recently been shown to aid in the diagnosis of particular neurological syndromes associated with cancer

PET imaging has been shown to improve detection of a variety of cancers, and earlier tests have suggested this technique may be useful in identifying small tumors in patients with paraneoplastic neurological disorders. But PET imaging is not yet widely available, and clear indicators of clinically meaningful outcomes using PET are essential to warrant use with this patient population.

28 Apr 2004

Results look promising in Alzheimer’s gene therapy trial

Surgical placement of genetically modified tissue directly into the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease, an experimental approach to delaying brain cell loss associated with the disease, leads to increased metabolic activity in the brain, with cells apparently responding to the insertion of growth factor-producing grafts

28 Apr 2004

New evidence that brain circuits involved in drug addiction are also activated by the desire for food

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have produced new evidence that brain circuits involved in drug addiction are also activated by the desire for food.

19 Apr 2004

Lung tumor therapies improved by combining scanning technologies

Physicians targeting lung tumors for radiation therapy can substantially improve their aim by combining data from two scanning techniques, according to Washington University researchers at Siteman Cancer Center and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.

14 Apr 2004