Dear AuntMinnie Member,
The annual meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) is winding down, and Features Editor Wayne Forrest has been filing stories from San Diego for our Molecular Imaging Community.
Our first story reports on research that may shed light on the mechanisms of Alzheimer's disease. Using a novel PET tracer that binds to tau proteins, German researchers found a significant correlation between increased tau deposits and decreased metabolic activity in the brain, an indication of neurodegeneration.
The team led by Gerard Nisal Bischof, PhD, from the University Hospital of Cologne concluded that tau deposits may be more influential in causing Alzheimer's disease than amyloid accumulation. What else did they find? Click here for our coverage.
Also at SNMMI 2016, researchers from the University of Wisconsin at Madison shared how they used carbon-11-labeled Pittsburgh Compound B with PET to track an unusual increase in beta-amyloid plaque in the brains of people with Down syndrome. Click here for the details.
Efforts to develop a PET tracer to visualize a key protein in Parkinson's disease should get a boost from a new initiative by the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which announced it will award $2 million to the first team to develop a PET tracer for visualizing alpha-synuclein. Click here to learn more.
Get these and other articles, including additional coverage from SNMMI 2016, by visiting our Molecular Imaging Community at molecular.auntminnie.com.
Cutting dose in low-dose CT lung cancer screening
While CT lung cancer screening has been shown to reduce cancer mortality, there are lingering concerns that radiation from the scans themselves could cause cancer in the future. A Swiss research team, however, has tested a new protocol for low-dose CT screening that could lower radiation dose to patients to nearly the level of a chest x-ray.
How did the protocol perform? Find out by clicking here for our coverage by Editor-in-Chief Brian Casey, or stop by our CT Community at ct.auntminnie.com.
Enterprise imaging success
Embarking on an enterprise imaging program can be a complicated and daunting experience. To help, a joint workgroup from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) recently produced a white paper that defines enterprise imaging and shares their seven key elements for success.
Click here for the details, or check out our Imaging Informatics Community at informatics.auntminie.com.
