When Mammograms Aren't Enough: New Innovations Help Catch Breast Cancer Early Oct 29, 2008
Molecular Breast Imaging (MBI) begins with an injection of a short-acting, "radioactive tracer" that travels through the body and highlights cancer cells, detected by cameras, that mammograms often miss. MBI serves as a complementary form of detection for higher risk women, and tends to show fewer "false positives" than mammograms, meaning fewer women have to undergo unnecessary biopsies. (Canton Daily Ledger, IL)
A better test for cancer Sep 11, 2008
The experimental method -- molecular breast imaging, or MBI -- uses a radioactive tracer that "lights up" cancer hiding inside dense breast tissue. Researchers tried both MBI and the common mammogram on 940 women who had dense breasts and a high risk of cancer because of family history, bad genes or other reasons. (Herald Online, SC -- Opinion)
Promising New Way to Detect Breast Cancer Sep 5, 2008
s radioactive tracer finds tumors mammograms may miss ... But with molecular breast imaging, women receive an injection of a short-acting, "radioactive tracer" that travels through the body and "latches on" to cancer cells. (ABC News)
Imaging a Promising Cancer Detector Sep 5, 2008
A radioactive tracer that "lights up" cancer hiding inside dense breasts showed promise in its first big test against mammograms, revealing more tumors and giving fewer false alarms, doctors reported Wednesday. Related Articles. (Time.com)
New Breast Cancer Detection Shows Promise Sep 4, 2008
Radioactive Tracer "Lights Up" Cancer Hiding Inside Dense Breasts ... (AP) A radioactive tracer that "lights up" cancer hiding inside dense breasts showed promise in its first big test against mammograms, revealing more tumors and giving fewer false alarms, doctors reported Wednesday ... Radioactive Tracer "Lights Up" Cancer Hiding Inside Dense Breasts. (CBS News)
Breast Cancer 'Lights Up' In New Test Sep 4, 2008
Doctors said a radioactive tracer that "lights up" cancer hiding inside dense breasts is showing promise after its first big test. In a comparison with mammograms, molecular breast imaging -- or MBI -- found 10 out of 13 tumors, missing three. (KSBW 8, CA)
Judge blocks welfare cuts Sep 4, 2008
A radioactive tracer that "lights up" cancer hiding inside dense breasts showed promise in its first big test against mammograms, revealing more tumors and giving fewer false alarms, doctors reported Wednesday. A 3 a.m. fight Saturday in Cass Lake resulted in two men shot and six suspects arrested. (Yahoo News -- Welfare Reform)
Athlerosclorosis and Heart Health - Sponsored by Crestor - How New Heart-Scanning Technology Could Save Your Life - TIME.com Jul 24, 2008
5 million echocardiograms, which use sound waves to produce pictures of the internal structures of the heart, and more than 9 million nuclear perfusion scans, which use mildly radioactive tracer molecules to measure how well the cardiac muscle is nourished. Improvements in computer processing power and software have made these tests more reliable and more conclusive than ever before. (Time.com)
3D Mammograms Help Breast Exams Jul 2, 2008
Doctors inject women with a drug known as a radioactive tracer, one cardiologists have used in heart stress tests for years. It tends to briefly collect in breast tumors, lighting up for viewing when Mayo switches on a small gamma camera. (Time.com)
High-Tech Imaging No Better for Diagnosing Head/Neck Cancers May 15, 2008
Positron emission tomography with a radioactive tracer (18F-FDG PET) is one of three imaging techniques commonly used to check whether head and neck squamous cell cancer has spread to the nearby lymph nodes in such patients. This is important in determining the prognosis of the disease, since some patients who clinically appear free of these types of metastases may actually have small tumors within their lymph nodes. (MEDLINEplus)
Breast Cancer Lymph Node Biopsy May Need Closer Look Apr 9, 2008
In sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy, a patient's tumor is injected with a combination of dye and radioactive tracer molecules. The following day, only those lymph nodes to which the tracer molecules migrated (the SLNs) are biopsied and analyzed. (Health-Finder)
Breakdown Of Kidney's Ability To Clean Its Own Filters Likely Causes Disease Feb 4, 2008
To do this, they measured the retention of a radioactive tracer in the kidneys of normal mice and in mice where the gene for FcRn had been disabled. Mice lacking FcRn had difficulty clearing antibody from the kidney. (Science Daily)
Heart Tests Offer New Options For Diagnosis Jan 15, 2008
Other imaging technology includes MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), which utlizies a powerful magnet instead of radiation; and nuclear medicine, which involves injecting radioactive tracer molecules to measure blood flow. While these imaging options are not new, the level of precision and detail has improved dramatically. (Science Daily)
KDMC obtains state-of-the-art camera Jan 4, 2008
"But because of the wide range of breast tissue density, tumors, cysts and other abnormalities can be hidden by dense tissue, scar tissue or breast implants. This makes the sensitivity of a mammography approximately 81 percent. "In other words, one in five abnormalities may go undiscovered, even in the hands of the most skilled and experienced mammographers and radiologists," he said. Kirchbaum added that mammography has a "less-than-perfect" specificity, which means that determining the... (Brookhaven Daily Leader, MS)
CT Scans Catch More Clots in Lungs Dec 20, 2007
The test requires an injection of a radioactive tracer and the inhalation of radioactive gas. CTPA has been around for about 10 years and also involves using an injected radioactive tracer but doesn't require the inhalation portion included in V/Q scans. (MEDLINEplus)
Searching For The Brain Center Responsible For Tinnitus Oct 10, 2007
In another study phase, the researchers will assess neural activity throughout the entire brain using a radioactive tracer, fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), which is taken up preferentially into regions of the brain that are highly active metabolically. The third phase of the study involves the use of potential therapeutic drugs to suppress salicylate- or noise-induced tinnitus. (Science Daily)
Toxin in brain is dementia warning Jun 24, 2007
A radioactive tracer was injected through a vein in the arm, flowed through the brain and stuck to the amyloid, Associate Professor Rowe, of Melbourne's Austin Hospital, said. A scan of the patient's head showed whether amyloid was present in the brain. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Australia)
Plans for anemia drug run into roadblocks Apr 9, 2007
9 million from medical imaging division for Cardiolite, a heart stress test invented by researchers at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that uses a radioactive tracer to identify damaged tissue. But some payoffs can be even higher. (Boston Globe)
Slim access to PET scans in Ontario a 'disgrace' Jan 21, 2007
The scan costs roughly $2,500 in Ontario and $1,250 in Alberta, the difference in price being due largely to Alberta's proximity to the short-lived radioactive tracer isotope that is mixed with a sugar called fluorodeoxyglucose. The closer the source, the cheaper the cost. (Globe and Mail)
New Hybrid Imaging System Allows Pinpoint Locating Of Problems Jan 10, 2007
During a SPECT/CT scan, a radioactive tracer is administered to the patient. When the radioactive isotope decays, it emits gamma rays that are then processed by the gamma camera. (Science Daily)
