Disease-Specific Tests

How are you all doing as you are getting back to your daily routine after COVID-19? With many conferences and workshops conducted only in person, there is even something nostalgic about remote holding and on-demand viewing. What are the trends in nuclear medicine testing at your facilities?

In 2024, the Japanese Society of Nuclear Medicine will celebrate its 60th anniversary. Prof. Jun Hashimoto, who is also the President of the Japanese Society of Nuclear Cardiology, will serve as the President of the 64th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Nuclear Medicine. The biggest topic of the Annual Meeting will be amyloid PET imaging, which is now covered by insurance. In 2023, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) approved the drug for “mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease and inhibition of the progression of mild dementia” for the use of Recanemab, which was developed by Eisai Inc. of Japan and Biogen Inc. of the United States. The same is true for ^99mTc-PYP imaging in transthyretin-type cardiac amyloidosis, which has received a lot of attention since the development of the therapeutic drug Tafamidis. I believe that we are now in an era in which highly disease-specific tests are highly desirable. We are making daily efforts to propose the best treatment by making full use of imaging in many diseases. We are always looking for new isotopes that are highly disease-specific and directly related to effective treatment of cardiac diseases.