The Journal of Nuclear Medicine back issues from May 2008:
Molecular Imaging Curriculum Development
May 01, 2008; ... The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education requires a regular 5-year review and revision (if needed) of specialty-specific curriculum requirements. In July 2007, new nuclear medicine training requirements went into effect. In anticipation of the next curriculum review, the SNM ...
Communication-A Process of Continuous Improvement
May 01, 2008; ... One sure sign of a thriving organization is its ability to communicate with its stakeholders-with clients and customers on the outside and members and staff on the inside. Good communication requires a healthy exchange of information, and with today's vibrant electronic infrastructure, this ...
CMS Denies New PET Coverage for Infection, Inflammation
May 01, 2008; ... The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released on March 19 a Decision Memorandum stating that "based upon our review CMS has determined that the evidence is inadequate to conclude that FDG PET for chronic osteomyelitis, infection of hip arthroplasty, and fever of unknown origin ...
NOPR Study Confirms PET Benefit in Patient Management
May 01, 2008; ... According to a study of data collected by the National Oncologic PET Registry (NOPR) and published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology on March 24, management decisions are changed on the basis of results of ^sup 18^F-FDG PET in more than a third of patients who undergo such imaging. Lead ...
In Memoriam: Harvey Picker
May 01, 2008; ... Harvey Picker, physicist, inventor, educator, businessman, and philanthropist, died on March 22 at the age of 92 in Camden, ME. He was bom in New York, NY, in 1915, the same year his father organized the James Picker Co. to offer sales and service of X-ray equipment and supplies. He graduated ...
MOC, ABNM, and the Public Trust
May 01, 2008; ... The public has become increasingly concerned about the state of health care in this country. The publication of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report To Err is Human in 2000 was followed by an increasing public demand to improve patient safety. This report estimated that "as many as 98,000 ...
Bilingual Guide to Nuclear Medicine Procedures
May 01, 2008; ... SNM recently released A Patient's Guide to Nuclear Medicine Procedures: English-Spanish/Una Guía Para el Paciente Sobre Procedimientos de la Medicina Nuclear: Ingle's-Espanol, a flip-chart book that explains more than 30 common nuclear imaging procedures. "Patient preparation is one of the most ...
Review Panel Recommends NRC Licensing Changes
May 01, 2008; ... The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Independent External Review Panel on March 18 issued a summary of recommended changes to the commission's process for granting licenses to possess radioactive materials. These changes were said to be "aimed at eliminating vulnerabilities that could be ...
MedPAC Releases March 2008 Report to the Congress: Medicare Payment Policy
May 01, 2008; ... The Medicare Payment Advisoiy Commission (MedPAC), the independent Congressional agency established to advise the U.S. Congress on issues affecting the Medicare program, has recently released its March 2008 Report to the Congress: Medicare Payment Policy. The 17 commissioners represent diverse ...
Ten Million Boomers to Develop AD
May 01, 2008; ... On March 18, the Alzheimer's Association (Washington, DC) released a report estimating that 10 million "baby boomers"-1 in 8-in the United States will develop Alzheimer's disease (AD). The report, 2008 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures, urges immediate federal efforts to address "this ...
Physicians, Physicists Team Up
May 01, 2008; ... An international collaboration of medical and high-energy physicists met at a March 27 workshop on the University of Chicago (UC) campus to develop a common technology that would serve dramatically different purposes, including the advancement of time-of-flight (TOF) PET imaging and the ...
Safety of FDA Approval Speed Questioned
May 01, 2008; ... Researchers from Harvard University (Boston, MA) reported in the March 27 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (Carpenter et al.; 2008;358:1354-1361) on a study examining safety issues associated with implementation of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) of 1992, which imposes ...
Pitt Receives Gates TB Grant
May 01, 2008; ... The University of Pittsburgh (PA) Center for Vaccine Research announced on March 19 the receipt of an $11.4 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Seattle, WA) to develop new strategies to control tuberculosis (TB), which kills almost 2 million people per year worldwide. The ...
Medical Tests Trigger Problems at the Border
May 01, 2008; ... On March 5 the Southgate, MI, News-Herald published an account of a Michigan man who was detained at the U.S./Canadian border after undergoing nuclear medicine diagnostic tests. On February 21, William Duran, a former police commissioner of Wyandotte, MI, underwent myocardial perfusion ...
SPECT and Memory Deficits in Early AD
May 01, 2008; ... In an article published in the March issue of Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders (2008 ;25:347-35 3), Hanyu et al. from the Tokyo Medical University (Japan) reported on a study using SPECT data to investigate the neuroanatomical substrates of unawareness of memory deficits in patients ...
Imaging Neuropsychologic Sequelae to Toxins
May 01, 2008; ... Ozyurt et al. from Uludag University (Bursa, Turkey) reported in the March issue of Clinical Toxicology (2008;46:218-221) on a study using ^sup 99m^Tc-HMPAO SPECT to image regional cerebral blood flow in patients with either acute carbon monoxide exposure (n = 7) or acute organophosphate ...
Risk Stratification for Cardiac Sarcoidosis
May 01, 2008; ... Mehta et al. from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine (New York, NY) reported on March 13 ahead of print in Chest on the diagnostic and prognostic value of cardiac MR and PET in the outpatient assessment of patients with sarcoidosis. The study included 62 such patients who were interviewed for ...
Long-Term Prognosis for Medullary Thyroid Cancer
May 01, 2008; ... In an article e-published on March 10 ahead of print in Clinical Endocrinology (Oxford), Rendl et al. from the Paracelsus Private Medical University (Salzburg, Austria) reported on a study of factors in long-term survival after diagnosis of medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC). The study focused on ...
Improving Parathyroid Reoperation
May 01, 2008; ... Hessman et al. from University Hospital (Uppsala, Sweden) reported on March 12 ahead of print in the World Journal of Surgery on the investigation of techniques for localization diagnosis to improve success rates in parathyroid reoperations. The study included 144 patients with nonmalignant ...
PET and PET/CT in Monitoring Uterine Sarcoma
May 01, 2008; ... In an article e-published on February 27 ahead of print in Gynecologic Oncology, Park et al. from the University of Ulsan College of Medicine (Seoul, Republic of Korea) reported on the clinical accuracy of PET or PET/CT in detecting tumor recurrence in patients treated for uterine sarcoma. The ...
Preoperative PET/CT Colonography
May 01, 2008; ... Nagata et al. from the Showa University Northern Yokohama Hospital (Japan) reported on March 11 ahead of print in Diseases of the Colon and Rectum on a study evaluating the utility of ^sup 18^F-FDG PET/CT colonography in the preoperative diagnosis of tumors proximal to obstructive colorectal ...
Receptor Scintigraphy in Pediatric Brain Tumors
May 01, 2008; ... Khanna et al. from the University of Iowa (Iowa City) reported in the March issue of Pediatric Blood Cancer (2008; 50:561-566) on a study evaluating the role of somatostatin receptor scintigraphy (SRS) in posttreatment surveillance of pediatric brain tumors. The study included 20 children and ...
SLN Biopsy Experience in Pediatric Patients
May 01, 2008; ... Kayton et al. from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (New York, NY) reported on March 13 ahead of print in Cancer on a 10-y review of the pathology, lymphoscintigraphy, and clinical records of pediatric and young adult patients who underwent ^sup 99m^Tc-sulfur colloid-guided sentinel ...
^sup 99m^Tc-HMPAO SPECT and Autism
May 01, 2008; ... Degirmenci et al. from the Dokuz Eylul University Medical School (Izmir, Turkey) reported in the April 15 issue of Psychiatry Research (2008; 162:236-243) on a study using 99TcHMPAO SPECT to investigate and characterize perfusion patterns in autistic children and their families. The study ...
Scintigraphy and Salivary Function After RT
May 01, 2008; ... THERAPY Tenhunen et al. from the Helsinki University Central Hospital (Finland) reported on March 6 ahead of print in Radiotherapy and Oncology on a study evaluating the use of ^sup 99m^Tc-pertechnetate scintigraphy in predicting salivary flow after radiation therapy. The study included ...
RIT and NHL
May 01, 2008; ... In an article e-published on March 12 ahead of print in Lancet Oncology, Zinzani et al. from the University of Bologna (Italy) expanded on previously published results (Cancer. 2008;112: 856-862) of a prospective, open-label, nonrandomized phase 2 trial of combined fludarabine and mitoxantrone ...
Amifostine in High-Dose ^sup 131^I Treatments
May 01, 2008; ... Kim et al. from the Pusan National University Hospital (Busan, Republic of Korea) reported in the March issue of Thyroid (2008;18:325-381) on a study using serial quantitative analysis of salivary gland scans to investigate the effectiveness of amifostine as a cytoprotective adjuvant in ^sup ...
Nanobody-Based SPECT EGFR Imaging
May 01, 2008; ... MOLECULAR IMAGING In an article e-published on February 23 ahead of print in Molecular Imaging and Biology, Huang et al. from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Brussels, Belgium) reported on a technique for in vivo SPECT nanobody-based radioimmunodetection of epidermal growth factor ...
Direct Stem Cell Injection in Refractory Ischemia
May 01, 2008; ... Pompilio et al. from the Centra Cardiologico Monzino (Milan, Italy) reported in the March issue of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon (2008;56: 71-76) on research on direct intramyocardial injection of bone marrow-derived stem cells in patients with refractory ischemia. The study included S ...
Microbubbles and Therapeutic Angiogenesis
May 01, 2008; ... In an article published in the March issue of the Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine (2008;27:453-460), Li et al. from the second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing University of Medical Sciences (China) reported on a study exploring the feasibility of therapeutic angiogenesis induced by hepatocyte ...
MR Imaging and Diabetogenic Cell Response
May 01, 2008; ... Medarova and colleagues from the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Masschusetts Institute of Technology (Boston) reported in the April issue of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (2008; 59:712-720) on a study using MR imaging with a novel superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticle-based contrast ...
Molecular and Functional MRI of the Tumor Microenvironment
May 01, 2008; ... In malignant tumors, cancer cells are embedded within a complex microenvironment consisting of the extracellular matrix (ECM), blood and lymphatic vessels, infiltrating leukocytes, fibroblasts, and other stromal cells. This microenvironment is characterized by abnormal physiologic conditions ...
Risks Associated with Therapeutic ^sup 131^I Radiation Exposure
May 01, 2008; ... In 1996, Schlumberger et al. (1) reported on the effects of therapeutic ^sup 131^I exposure on pregnancy. The research involved 2,113 pregnancies occurring after 1970 and 258 pregnancies in women who had undergone radioiodine therapy. In that report, the epidemiological data indicated there was ...
Diagnostic Accuracy of ^sup 11^C-Methionine PET for Differentiation of Recurrent Brain Tumors from Radiation Necrosis After Radiotherapy
May 01, 2008; ... We evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of PET with L-methyl-^sup 11^C-methionine (^sup 11^C-MET) for the differentiation of recurrent brain tumors from radiation necrosis. Methods: Seventy-seven patients who had been previously treated with radiotherapy after primary treatment for metastatic brain ...
Long-Term Precision of ^sup 18^F-Fluoride PET Skeletal Kinetic Studies in the Assessment of Bone Metabolism
May 01, 2008; ... ^sup 18^F-Fluoride PET allows noninvasive evaluation of regional bone metabolism and has the potential to become a useful tool for assessing patients with metabolic bone disease and evaluating novel drugs being developed for these diseases. The main PET parameter of interest, termed K^sub i^, ...
Comparison of ^sup 18^F-FDG PET and MRI in Assessment of Uterine Smooth Muscle Tumors
May 01, 2008; ... The purpose of this study was to prospectively determine whether combined MRI and ^sup 18^F-FDG PET is more accurate than MRI in assessing nonbenign uterine smooth muscle tumors (USMTs). Methods: Seventy patients (mean age, 49 ± 10 y; range, 28-77 y) suspected of having nonbenign USMTs underwent ...
Metabolic Imaging of Cerebral Gliomas: Spatial Correlation of Changes in O-(2-^sup 18^F-Fluoroethyl)-L-Tyrosine PET and Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging
May 01, 2008; ... The aim of this study was to determine the spatial correlation of O-(2-^sup 18^F-fluoroethyl)-L-tyrosine (^sup 18^F-FET) uptake and the concentrations of choline (Cho), creatine (Cr), and total N-acetylaspartate (tNAA) determined with proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (^sup 1^H ...
A New Acycloguanosine-Specific Supermutant of Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 Thymidine Kinase Suitable for PET Imaging and Suicide Gene Therapy for Potential Use in Patients Treated with Pyrimidine-Based Cytotoxic Drugs
May 01, 2008; ... The herpes simplex virus type 1 thymidine kinase (HSV1-tk) gene is widely used as a suicide gene in combination with ganciclovir (GCV) and as a nuclear imaging reporter gene with an appropriate reporter probe. Wild-type HSV1-tk recognizes a variety of pyrimidine and acycloguanosine nucleoside ...
Prognostic Value of ^sup 18^F-Fluoroethyl-L-Tyrosine PET and MRI in Small Nonspecific Incidental Brain Lesions
May 01, 2008; ... Nonspecific incidental brain lesions (NILs) are being detected more frequently because of an increasing number of screening or research MRI scans of the brain, and their natural course is uncertain. Methods: In a prospective cohort study starting in 1999, we determined the outcomes of patients ...
Reducing Radiation Dose in Rest-Stress Cardiac PET/CT by Single Poststress Cine CT for Attenuation Correction: Quantitative Validation
May 01, 2008; ... Cardiac PET/CT is optimized by cine CT with dedicated shift software for manual correction of attenuation-emission misregistration. Separate rest and stress CT scans incur greater radiation dose to patients than does standard helical PET/CT or "pure" PET using rotating rod attenuation sources ....
Diastolic Filling Parameters Derived from Myocardial Perfusion Imaging Can Predict Left Ventricular End-Diastolic Pressure at Subsequent Cardiac Catheterization
May 01, 2008; ... Morbidity and mortality increase when diastolic dysfunction accompanies coronary artery disease (CAD). An elevated stress ^sup 201^Tl lung-to-heart ratio (LHR) is a traditional marker of elevated left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP), which adds prognostic value in CAD. Since the ...
Visualization of Brown Adipose Tissue with ^sup 99m^Tc-Methoxyisobutylisonitrile on SPECT/CT
May 01, 2008; ... Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is retained into adulthood in some patients. It has been imaged using several radiopharmaceuticals, including ^sup 18^F-FDG. Using SPECT/CT, we assessed whether and how frequently uptake of ^sup 99m^Tc-methoxyisobutylisonitrile (^sup 99m^Tc-MIBI) was present in ...
Recombinant Human TSH-Assisted Radioactive Iodine Remnant Ablation Achieves Short-Term Clinical Recurrence Rates Similar to Those of Traditional Thyroid Hormone Withdrawal
May 01, 2008; ... Recent studies have confirmed that radioactive iodine therapy after recombinant human TSH (rhTSH) stimulation effectively ablates the normal thyroid remnant. However, no published study has determined the effectiveness of rhTSH preparations on the important endpoint of disease recurrence ....
New ^sup 133^Xe Gas Trapping Index for Quantifying Severe Emphysema Before Partial Lung Volume Reduction
May 01, 2008; ... Lung volume reduction (LVR) is an effective therapy for end-stage emphysema. Preliminary and postprocedure imaging is usually limited to CT for anatomic delineation of the location and severity of the most acutely affected lung zones. The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential of ...
Radionuclide Evaluation of the Lower Gastrointestinal Tract*
May 01, 2008; ... This review outlines the technical aspects and diagnostic performance parameters of nuclear medicine procedures used on patients with disorders of the lower gastrointestinal tract, with the exclusion of techniques using tumor-seeking radiopharmaceuticals, Chronic disorders of the lower ...
Comparison of the Biodistribution and Tumor Targeting of Two ^sup 99m^Tc-Labeled Anti-EGFR Nanobodies in Mice, Using Pinhole SPECT/Micro-CT
May 01, 2008; ... Camelidae possess an unusual class of antibodies devoid of light chains. Nanobodies are intact antigen-binding fragments that are stable, easily generated against different targets, and fully functional. Their rapid clearance from the blood circulation favors their use as imaging agents. We ...
^sup 111^In-Labeled Galectin-3-Targeting Peptide as a SPECT Agent for Imaging Breast Tumors
May 01, 2008; ... Galectin-3 is a member of the galectin family of β-galactoside-binding animal lectins. Galectin-3 is overexpressed in a wide range of neoplasms and is associated with tumor growth and metastases. Given this fact, radiolabeled galectin-3-targeting molecules may be useful for the noninvasive ...
Small-Animal PET Imaging of Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Type 2 Expression with Site-Specific ^sup 18^F-Labeled Protein Scaffold Molecules
May 01, 2008; ... Human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2 (HER2) is a well-established tumor biomarker that is overexpressed in a wide variety of cancers and that serves as a molecular target for therapeutic intervention. HER2 also serves as a prognostic indicator of patient survival and as a predictive ...
DPA-714, a New Translocator Protein-Specific Ligand: Synthesis, Radiofluorination, and Pharmacologic Characterization
May 01, 2008; ... The translocator protein (18 kDa) (TSPO), formerly known as the peripheral benzodiazepine receptor, is dramatically upregulated under pathologic conditions. Activated microglia are the main cell type expressing the TSPO at sites of central nervous system pathology. Radioligands for the TSPO can ...
Preparation of a Promising Angiogenesis PET Imaging Agent: ^sup 68^Ga-Labeled c(RGDyK)-Isothiocyanatobenzyl-1,4,7-Triazacyclononane-1,4,7-Triacetic Acid and Feasibility Studies in Mice
May 01, 2008; ... Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) derivatives have been labeled with various radioisotopes for the imaging of angiogenesis in ischemic tissue, in which α^sub v^β^sub 3^ integrin plays an important role. In this study, cyclic Arg-Gly-Asp-D-Tyr-Lys [c(RGDyK)] was conjugated with ...
Myeloablative ^sup 131^I-Tositumomab Radioimmunotherapy in Treating Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma: Comparison of Dosimetry Based on Whole-Body Retention and Dose to Critical Organ Receiving the Highest Dose
May 01, 2008; ... Myeloablative radioimmunotherapy using ^sup 131^I-tositumomab (anti-CD20) monoclonal antibodies is an effective therapy for B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The amount of radioactivity for radioimmunotherapy may be determined by several methods, including those based on whole-body retention and on ...
Uncertainties in Internal Dose Calculations for Radiopharmaceuticals
May 01, 2008; ... This paper presents a systematic analysis of the inherent uncertainty in internal dose calculations for radiopharmaceuticals. A generic equation for internal dose is presented, and the uncertainty in each of the individual terms is analyzed, with the relative uncertainty of all terms compared ....
Therapeutic Administration of ^sup 131^I for Differentiated Thyroid Cancer: Radiation Dose to Ovaries and Outcome of Pregnancies
May 01, 2008; ... Radiation is known to be mutagenic. The present study updates a 10-y-old study regarding pregnancy outcome and the health of offspring of women previously exposed to radioiodine (^sup 131^I) during thyroid carcinoma treatment, by doubling the number of pregnancies that occurred after exposure ....
Cardiac CT Angiography Manual
May 01, 2008; ... Cardiac CT Angiography Manual R. Pelberg and W. Mazur New York, NY: Springer, 2007, 142 pages, $49.95 Cardiac CT angiography is a rapidly growing imaging modality that provides vital diagnostic information, and the technique is changing continuously as a result of new research and ...
MRI and CT of the Female Pelvis
May 01, 2008; ... MRI and CT of the Female Pelvis B. Hamm and R. Forstner, eds. New York, NY: Springer, 2007, 388 pages, $219 One of the most challenging problems in clinical practice is discerning the cause of pelvic pain. Cross-sectional imaging contributes important information for proper diagnosis of ...
Egg Labeling for Gastric-Emptying Studies/REPLY
May 01, 2008; ... TO THE EDITOR: We were delighted to read some back-tobasics research in the November JNM and thank Knight et al. (1) for a much-needed evaluation of gastric-emptying labeling efficacy. Mixing a radiopharmaceutical and meal does not guarantee either successful labeling or, indeed, maintenance of ...
Scintigraphy or Multidetector CT Angiography for Suspected Pulmonary Embolism?/REPLY
May 01, 2008; ... TO THE EDITOR: Leonard Freeman's perspective on the use of the ventilation-perfusion scan (7) will be a useful resource for those of us struggling to educate our clinicians on the relative utility of scintigraphy and multidetector CT angiography in the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism. Like him, ...
SNM Young Professionals Committee: Looking to Nuclear Medicine's Future
May 01, 2008; ... In 2004, Gina Caravaglia, DO, and Kelly Pham, DO, 2 nuclear medicine residents who were part of the SNM Residents Committee, began to form a new group of young professionals who were interested in better organizing residents and fellows in nuclear medicine. With the guidance and support of SNM ...
^sup 123^I-[beta]-CIT SPECT and Early Parkinson's Disease
May 01, 2008; ... DIAGNOSIS Caretti et al. from the Vrije University Medical Center (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) reported on March 12 ahead of print in the Journal of Neural Transmission on a study investigating the relationship between thalamic ^sup 123^I-β-CIT binding on SPECT and early symptoms of ...
Increased Serotonin and Dopamine Transporter Binding in Psychotropic Medication-Naïve Patients with Generalized Social Anxiety Disorder Shown by ^sup 123^I-[beta]-(4-Iodophenyl)-Tropane SPECT
May 01, 2008; ... There is circumstantial evidence for the involvement of serotonergic and dopaminergic systems in the pathophysiology of social anxiety disorder. In the present study, using SPECT imaging we examined the ^sup 123^I-β-(4-iodophenyl)-tropane binding potential for the serotonin and dopamine ...
^sup 203^Pb-Labeled [alpha]-Melanocyte-Stimulating Hormone Peptide as an Imaging Probe for Melanoma Detection
May 01, 2008; ... Peptide-targeted α-therapy with 7.4 MBq of ^sup 212^Pb-[1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid]-ReO-[Cys^sup 3,4,10^, D-Phe^sup 7^,Arg^sup 11^]α-MSH^sub 3-13^ (^sup 212^Pb-DOTA-Re(Arg^sup 11^)CCMSH) cured 45% of B16/F1 murine melanoma-bearing C57 mice in a 120-d ...