Dear Molecular Imaging Insider,
In this issue, we bring you an exclusive first look at a study from researchers at Stanford University, who found that combining the tracers FDG and F-18 sodium fluoride (NaF) with PET/CT increases sensitivity for detecting malignant lesions when compared to FDG alone.
Preliminary results showed that dual-tracer imaging can achieve optimal results with administration of the second tracer within approximately two hours of the first tracer injection, or by combining the two tracers as a "cocktail" of FDG and NaF. Click here for details and clinical images of the marked difference.
In other top features, French researchers used FDG-PET to discover a common brain dysfunction among school-age children afflicted with fever-induced refractory epileptic encephalopathy (FIRES). The modality's ability to identify the pathological condition may pinpoint the origin and cause of FIRES, which previously has been unknown, according to the researchers.
In addition, supply shortages of molybdenum-99 could become commonplace over the next decade unless longer-term actions are taken, according to a new report from the Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Meanwhile, associate editor Kate Madden Yee reports on how the use of coronary CT angiography (CCTA) has fallen faster than that of radionuclide myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI), and how CCTA may be underused due to a lack of referrals from cardiologists who control MPI equipment.
And, for the first time, Swedish researchers have observed the progression of Alzheimer's disease with the use of PET and carbon-11-labeled Pittsburgh Compound B. The group found high concentrations of amyloid plaques during early stages of the disease, which coincided with the beginning of the patient's memory loss. The amyloid plaque levels also remained unchanged during the course of the disease as metabolism declined in the brain.
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