The “cuddle hormone” and neurotransmitter oxytocin, which has been shown to improve social skills in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), does not boost beneficial serotonin activity in these patients as it clearly does in their non-autistic peers, according to a PET-based study conducted at the Institute of Cognitive Sciences in Lyon, France. {read more here}

The utility of positron emission tomography (PET) and computerized tomography (CT) imaging to complement temporal artery biopsy (TAB) in patients with newly diagnosed giant cell arteritis (GCA) who are receiving glucocorticoid therapy remains equivocal, according to the results of a recent prospective Canadian study published in The Journal of Rheumatology. {read more here}

Brain imaging with FDG is as accurate as PET/MR scanning for diagnosis of children with localization-related epilepsy, according to a study published in Pediatric Radiology Researchers from Texas, Arizona, and Ohio performed a prospective study to compare the diagnostic accuracy of PET/MR-acquired FDG brain exams to that of PET/CT with respect to identifying seizure foci in children with localization-related epilepsy. {read more here}

Using PET (positron emission tomography) brain scans, the research team showed that those with impaired illness awareness also had reduced glucose uptake in specific brain regions, even when accounting for other factors typically associated with a decrease in glucose uptake, such as age and degree of memory loss. {read more here}