A nation-wide survey was carried out on theFDG-PETscans for the diagnosis of dementia by theFDG-PETWorking Group organized by both the Japan Radioisotope Association and the Japanese Society of Nuclear Medicine. A total of 406 case reports were presented by 15PETcenters for one year. The purpose of thePETscans included (A) early diagnosis of Alzheimer-type Dementia (154 cases) and (B) differential diagnosis of degenerative dementia (144 cases), which was achieved by the PET scan in most cases. ThePETscan turned out to allow omittingCBF-SPECTscans. Since donepezil treatment of theAl-zheimerpatients prevents the progress of the disease and reduces the care cost, an economic evaluation was performed on the two-year projected cost and benefit ofFDG-PET.The reduction of the total cost by incorporatingPETinto the protocol was predicted to be 61 500 yen (A) and 13 700 yen (B) per person. The increase of the Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY) was predicted to be 0.0442 (A) and 0.0137 (B) . Therefore, incorporation ofPETinto the clinical pass was shown to be an economically dominant. As the number of potential subjects for early diagnosis of dementia is estimated to be 9000 across the country every year, PET is expected to increase their quality of life equivalent to 398 intact persons per year while reducing the cost of health care by 554 million yen.
Multi-center studies were performed to examine the clinical usefulness ofFDG-PETin patients with esophageal cancer and its effects on the medical expenses. Esophageal cancer patients were divided into two groups ; 79 untreated patients (group A) and 68 patients after the treatment (group B), and questionnaires were analyzed. In group A, 6 of 79 (7.9%) patients showed the change of treatment, resulting in the decrease of medical cost of 78000 Japanese yen (678) per patient. In group B, 25 of 68 (36.8%) patients demonstrated the clinical usefulness ofFDG-PET, and medical expenses of 122000 Japanese yen (1060) per patient were calculated to be decreased due to the discontinuation of anti-cancer chemotherapy in patients with bone metastases which were detected by usingFDG-PET. These results suggest thatFDG-PETis clinically useful in esophageal cancer patients after treatment and may decrease the total medical expenses.
Multi-center survey has been conducted about the diagnostic ability ofFDG-PETfor patients with gynecological malignancies. A total of 304 cases (122 cases for staging, 182 cases for the diagnosis of recurrence) were collected from 5 institutions.FDG-PETshowed high diagnostic ability in both preoperative staging and the detection of recurrence, and occasionally afforded better information than conventional morphological imaging modalities such asCTandMRIdid. Furthermore, with the use ofFDG-PET, unsuspected lesions were detected in 10.7% of the cases for preoperative staging and in 33.9% of the cases for diagnosing recurrence, and the therapeutic strategy was changed in 8.9% of the staging cases and 35.1 % of the recurrent cases. Especially in cases where image finding was not diagnostic and also in cases where recurrence was clinically suspected but not evident by morphological imaging modalities, FDG-PETwas proven to afford important information for the management of the patients and can yield cost-effectiveness by obviating unnecessary surgery and invasive procedures.
Obtaining abundant information on the expression of many genes occurring simultaneously in cells by theDNAarray analytical technology is very important in the life science research. However, the data processing method affects the result greatly. In this paper, the program named asEX-ARRAYwas prepared to verify the macro-array data, which was analyzed by 33P labeling probe, and examined. The original data was obtained from the software Array Gauge and was processed by setting two different backgrounds. Two resulting data were exported as text files, and were input toEX-ARRAY.Processing through this program enhanced the reliability on data analysis.
An automated system for preparation of11C-methylated compounds from [11C] methyl iodide, manufactured bySumitomo Heavy Industries Ltd., was adapted for the loop labeling method using [11C] methyl tiflate. Two 2-way valves on an exchangeable tray were replaced with 3-way valves and a furnace for heating anAgOTfcolumn at 200°C was added. The automated system successfully produced [11C] raclopride and [11C] N-methyl-3-piperidyl benzilate in 0.96-1.1GBq and 1.0-1.3 GBq, respectively, at 40 min after the end of bombardment.