New ways of imaging the heart, the brain and the pelvis could lead to better diagnosis and treatment of illnesses such as heart disease, Alzheimer's disease and ovarian cancer. That's the assessment of a series of studies presented this week at the Society for Nuclear Medicine's annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
In one study, Dr James H. Rudd, a cardiologist and scientist with the Imaging Sciences Laboratory at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, and colleagues showed that using two imaging techniques - multi-detector computed tomography (CT) and imaging positron emission tomography (PET) - along with N1177, a contrast agent that highlights plaques, provided imaging that was able to determine the amount of inflammation within atherosclerotic plaque and estimate the chances of plaque causing a future heart attack or stroke.
"The idea behind the project was to get an earlier diagnosis of atherosclerosis," Rudd said. "If we can detect these things earlier, then we can start effective therapy earlier and prevent the development of heart attacks and strokes."