Postsurgical medullary thyroid cancer patients who have elevated calcitonin levels, which can indicate that the cancer has returned, are well served with follow-up PET/CT using the radiotracer ¹⁸F-DOPA (fluorine-18-L-dihydroxyphenylalanine), according to a small study published online May 30 in Nuclear Medicine Communications. {read more here}

The study was conducted by using PET and fMRI. The participants were injected with radioactive compounds that bind to their brain’s opioid and dopamine receptors. Radioactivity in the brain was measured twice with the PET camera to map the distribution of opioid and dopamine receptors. Subsequently, the participants’ brain activity was measured with fMRI while they viewed videos depicting humans in various painful and painless situations. {read more here}

Even among non-dependent cocaine users, cues associated with consumption of the drug lead to dopamine release in an area of the brain thought to promote compulsive use, according to researchers at McGill University. {read more here}

The data was revealed in Molecular Psychiatry, with research led by Agneta Nordberg, a professor in Karolinska’s department of neurobiology, care sciences and society. Nordberg and her team used PET imaging to measure the spread of tau deposits and amyloid plaque linked with Alzheimer’s disease. They also charted the energy metabolism of the brain cells, monitoring the disease over time to see how the three parameters changed. {read more here}