Optical and optoacoustic imaging techniques have been emerging in research and have been slowly translating into clinical practice with humans, and research indicates that these techniques could be expanded further into interventional image guidance in the search for tumors, with both advantages and limitations, according to a review published in the April issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

A gene variant dubbed ABCA7 nearly doubles chances of African Americans developing Alzheimer’s disease compared to African Americans without the variant. This particular gene variant plays a role in lipid and cholesterol homeostasis and lipid-targeting drugs may be sought to improve prevention and potentially treat this patient population, according research published in the April issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Researchers from the Indiana University Center for Aging Research and the Regenstrief Institute are conducting the nation’s first randomized controlled dementia screening trial to weigh the benefits and risks of routine screening for dementia. The results of the five-year trial will help policy-makers, individuals and families weigh the pros and cons of routine screening of adults age 65 and older.

While radiographic evaluation of breast cancer may provide important information about tumor structures, it does not provide information about tumor burden. A novel method of cancer assay singling out circulating tumor DNA could provide additional information about tumor activity and lead to more accurate assessment and patient prognosis, according to a study published in the March edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Riding the wave toward expanded use of integrin-targeting angiogenic drugs, an agent requiring a complicated process of synthesis can now be generated in similar form with a simple kit. The agent, F-18 alfatide, is radiolabeled with integrin avb3-targeting peptides that bind to active tumor processes in squamous or adenomatous carcinoma--in this case of the lungs, according to research published this month in The Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

Multiple surgeries to resect or remove parathyroid glands are necessary for up to 7 percent of patients with hyperparathyroidism, a syndrome of glandular hyperactivity resulting in an overproduction of parathyroid hormone and increased levels of calcium. Planar scintigraphy with I-123 and Tc-99m sestamibi may be the most accurate imaging method for reoperative localization of the parathyroid glands, according to a study published in the May issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

Ventilation and perfusion (V/Q) SPECT could one day be used to track the early warning signs of cigarette smoke-induced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by documenting telltale airflow dysfunction.

Although the outlook for patients with multiple myeloma, a cancer that attacks blood plasma and bone marrow, is typically dismal, F-18 FDG PET/CT has emerged as a strategy that could provide earlier diagnosis as well as more accurate treatment monitoring and patient prognosis, according to a review in the April issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.