Tests such as SPECT, PET and MRI offer noninvasive alternatives for diagnosing patients with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD). Some recent evidence tilts in favor of these advanced imaging modalities, particularly when a multistep strategy is applied to diagnose CAD. By ruling out low-risk patients, these screening tools may help to eliminate unnecessary treatments and their associated costs.

Molecular imaging is spurring dramatic shifts in medicine. The latest venue to witness the revolution may be the surgical suite. The Advanced Multimodality Image-Guided Operating (AMIGO) suite at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) at Harvard Medical School in Boston weds intraoperative imaging and navigation systems in a surgical environment to set the stage for intraoperative applications of molecular imaging.

The capability to obtain complementary functional and anatomic information through a single device during a single session makes SPECT/CT an attractive option for numerous applications. In recent years, researchers have shown that SPECT/CT significantly improved the interpretation of planar studies of patients with thyroid cancer in the post-therapy setting. SPECT/CT is now being incorporated in the diagnostic setting to help in the post-operative staging, risk stratification and management of thyroid cancer patients. But is the evidence sufficient to change practice?

A partnership works best when it enhances and rewards its partners. That is the case with the partnership between University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and Philips Healthcare that is focused on developing, advancing and enhancing medical and molecular imaging technology. It also benefits another very important group—patients.

This issue of Molecular Imaging Insight focuses on test accuracy, cost and outcomes—all very key topics in 2012.

The image of the lone physician “listening for zebras” as he combs through a mental library of diagnoses is fast becoming a thing of the past. Some answers are objectively better than others, so the only real question is how to conveniently get those answers.

Positron's subsidiary, Manhattan Isotope Technology, has received an acknowledgment letter and Drug Master File number assignment from the FDA for its strontium-82 drug substance.

Breast-specific y camera scintigraphy is a highly specific tool for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) detection, and provides 100 percent sensitivity when paired with mammography, according to a study published in the October issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.