UltraSPECT, a leading provider of nuclear medicine (NM) image reconstruction technology that reduces radiopharmaceutical dose and acquisition time, announces today the installation of its proprietary Wide Beam Reconstruction (WBR™) software at nearly ten healthcare facilities.

Molecular imaging has been in a growth phase since 2010, spurred by emerging markets and demand for hybrid and other cutting edge scanner and biomarker technologies, according to a market report profiling the most recent developments in molecular imaging published in April by UK-based Espicom Business Intelligence.

A team of radiologists and neurologists at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland are enrolling patients with suspected early-stage Alzheimer’s disease in a study designed to determine if Amyvid can identify amyloid plaques via PET or MRI. Read more about the research by clicking the link below.

While healthcare reform has been slowly evolving as a result of many acts of Congress during the past decade, it is the Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA), that is driving major changes in healthcare coverage, the economics of the medical industry and quality of care. The latter is being carried by a series of reporting and incentive programs that have a direct impact on the practice of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging, according to a review published March 1 in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology.

Cerebral blood flow (CBF) is an emerging indication of Alzheimer’s pathology and dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) MRI may be an ideal modality to track CBF in high-risk patients with mild cognitive impairment, as well as those already diagnosed with the disease, according to a study published in the June issue of Academic Radiology.

SPECT/CT using high-resolution CT detector technology has been found to increase the diagnostic capabilities of SPECT when used to detect diseased bone, including osteomyelitis and other peripheral skeletal disease, and at a lower cost than high-resolution multi-detector CT, according to a study published May 23 in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

There are several advantages to PET/CT for myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) including upgrades in quantitative analysis and biomarker technology that could provide a more complete evaluation of cardiovascular disease, according to a review published in the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology.

In a companion piece that counters an opinion that SPECT is the best modality for first-line detection of CAD, separate experts argued that CT finds sub-clinical atherosclerosis and important coronary anatomy, providing earlier diagnoses and the option to be more aggressive with treatment, according to a review published April 10 in the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology.