Developers of the first FDA-approved imaging agent for the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, Eli Lily and Company and Avid Pharmaceuticals, held a conference call May 16 for stakeholders and members of the media to discuss the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Service's (CMS) upcoming draft decision regarding coverage for Amyvid and other beta-amyloid type diagnostic agents.

The gold standard for the detection of bone marrow invasion of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma is bone marrow biopsy. Researchers investigated a new approach with F-18 FDG PET/CT imaging to determine its efficacy and predictive value. The latter was found superior to biopsy in not only its sensitivity and accuracy, but also its ability to predict progression-free survival, according to a study published online May 14 in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

In an attempt to tease out the best possible technique for imaging the inflammation associated with atherosclerotic plaques, researchers peered into the cellular tangle and tested both FDG and MR imaging with ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide particles (USPIO) to find out what kind of relationships were happening at the molecular level. Researchers found a complex interplay of macrophage heterogeneity and subtle genetic up and downregulation that hint at the pathology of atherosclerosis, according to a study published May 13 in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

Simultaneous MR/PET acquisition provides more accurate alignment of hybrid datasets than retrospective fusion of MR images and PET data, according to a study published online May 8 in Radiology.

A tumor segmentation software dubbed single-click ensemble segmentation (SCES) is advancing the definition and delineation of a wide range of cancerous lesions past manual labor and into the realm of high-tech automation. 

Breast cancer tumors often express vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-A and a method of detection involving PET and the monoclonal antibody tracer Zr-89 bevacizumab is showing promise for the assessment of early to late stage primary malignancy, according to a study published May 7 in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

Simultaneous PET/MR broke additional ground toward clinical use by showing technical success and potential clinical merit for FDG PET/MR detection of ischemic heart disease, according to a study published May 7 in Radiology.

A multi-step study has determined that SPECT is a superior method of ventilator-perfusion (V/Q) imaging for the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism (PE) and also has indicated an optimal imaging protocol for its application, according to the second phase of the study published May 1 in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.