Total body PET scanner targets paediatric patients
A high-resolution total-body PET scanner, which will be the first of its kind in Europe, is being developed through a collaboration between Ghent University and the Vrije Universiteit Brussels. The machine – dubbed PET20.0 – will be completed by 2020, and will offer higher resolution scanning suitable for pediatric patients. {read more here}
“[I]t can be debated whether our brain, heart and bone imaging could be done with MR imaging only,” they write. “However, we found, in accordance with the findings of other investigators, that 18F-FDG PET can provide important additional information for the assessment of brain function by allowing detection of abnormal brain metabolism in brain areas that appeared normal on MR images.” {read more here}
A new PET radiopharmaceutical based on carbon-11-labeled sarcosine (C-11 sarcosine) could offer an alternative to choline 11-based PET for imaging patients with prostate cancer, according to a study published in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM). {read more here}
The Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) has published appropriate use criteria (AUC) for hepatobiliary scintigraphy in abdominal pain. This is the third in a series of new AUC developed by SNMMI in its role as a qualified provider-led entity (PLE) under the Medicare Appropriate Use Criteria Program for Advanced Diagnostic Imaging. The other recently released AUC are for bone scintigraphy in prostate and breast cancer and for ventilation/perfusion (V/Q) imaging in pulmonary embolism, which is endorsed by the American College of Emergency Physicians. In addition, the AUC for F-18-FDG PET restaging and response assessment of malignant disease has been approved by the SNMMI Board and will soon be available online and will be published in The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. {read more here}