In a new study [using PET and MRI scanning], researchers found that of more than 50 healthy adults, those with two parents affected by Alzheimer’s were more likely to show certain abnormalities in brain scans.  {read more here}

PET/MR doesn’t appear to provide any additional insight beyond PET/CT for thoracic staging of non-small cell lung cancer, according to a study published Feb. 6 in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine . {read more here}

The Congressional bills to permanently remove the problematic Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula for calculating Medicare physician payments also contains provisions that impact more than just physician pay.  To avoid an estimated 24 percent mandatory SGR cut to Medicare physician payments, Congress must pass the bill before March 1, when the temporary SGR fix passed in December of last year expires. Legislators leave Thursday for a 12-day-long recess, leaving only four working days to get the bill passed before March 1 and so far, there is no provision for how to pay for the bill — a cost estimated by the independent Congressional Budget Office as at least $115 billion over the next decade, more if payment increases for physicians who participate in MIPS and other alternative payment methodologies are figured in. {read more here}

Navidea Biopharmaceuticals Inc. announced Thursday that its investigational beta-amyloid imaging agent, NAV4694, produced highly differentiated images in the first cohort of subjects enrolled in the Company’s Phase 2b positron emission tomography or PET imaging study of subjects with Mild Cognitive Impairment or MCI. {read more here}