225 results about "Radioactive tracer" patented technology

Systems, apparatus and methods are provided through which an injector system automates a process of injecting an individual dose from a multiple dose of a radiotracer material. In some embodiments, the injector system includes a first dose calibrator system that receives a multidose vial of a radiotracer, a second dose calibrator system, an injection pump and an intravenous needle. In some embodiments, the first dose calibrator system and the multidose vial have an integrated shape. In some embodiments, the first dose calibrator system includes a pneumatic arm that receives the multidose vial.

In one aspect, systems, methods and apparatus are provided through which a dispensing station dispenses a large quantity of a radiotracer to one or more positron emission tomography imaging stations. In some aspects a quality control unit verifies the quality of the radiotracer. In some embodiments, components of the system are coupled by a local area network. In some aspects, each positron emission tomography imaging station includes an injector system, a physiological monitoring device, and a positron emission tomography scanner. All of the devices can be controlled by a computer system.

A camera sub-module is provided for providing tomographic imaging of radiation emissions generated internally by a body. The camera sub-module includes a radiation-emitting layer having a radioactive source for emitting transmission emissions, and at least one radiation-detection layer for contemporaneously detecting and permitting differentiation between the transmission emissions and emissions generated internal to an imaged body administered with a positron-emitting radiotracer. Also provided herein are imaging systems, scanners, and other apparatus and methods.

A cardiovascular imaging and functional analysis system and method is disclosed, wherein a dedicated fast, sensitive, compact and economical imaging gamma camera system that is especially suited for heart imaging and functional analysis is employed. The cardiovascular imaging and functional analysis system of the present invention can be used as a dedicated nuclear cardiology small field of view imaging camera. The disclosed cardiovascular imaging system and method has the advantages of being able to image physiology, while offering an inexpensive and portable hardware, unlike MRI, CT, and echocardiography systems.The cardiovascular imaging system of the invention employs a basic modular design suitable for cardiac imaging with one of several radionucleide tracers. The detector can be positioned in close proximity to the chest and heart from several different projections, making it possible rapidly to accumulate data for first-pass analysis, positron imaging, quantitative stress perfusion, and multi-gated equilibrium pooled blood (MUGA) tests..In a preferred embodiment, the Cardiovascular Non-Invasive Screening Probe system can perform a novel diagnostic screening test for potential victims of coronary artery disease. The system provides a rapid, inexpensive preliminary indication of coronary occlusive disease by measuring the activity of emitted particles from an injected bolus of radioactive tracer. Ratios of this activity with the time progression of the injected bolus of radioactive tracer are used to perform diagnosis of the coronary patency (artery disease).

A Cardiovascular imaging and functional analysis system and method employing a dedicated fast, sensitive, compact and economical imaging gamma camera system that is especially suited for heart imaging and functional analysis. The system uses a dedicated nuclear cardiology small field of view imaging camera, allowing image physiology, while offering inexpensive and portable hardware. In some variations, a basic modular design suitable for cardiac imaging with one of several radionucleide tracers is used. The detector is positioned in close proximity to the chest and heart from several different projections, allowing rapid accumulation of data for first-pass analysis, positron imaging, quantitative stress perfusion, and multi-gated equilibrium pooled blood tests. In one variation, a Cardiovascular Non-Invasive Screening Probe system provides rapid, inexpensive preliminary indication of coronary occlusive disease by measuring the activity of emitted particles from an injected bolus of radioactive tracer.

The present invention describes a method for identification and labeling of sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) and the presence or absence of lymph node metastases as an important diagnostic and prognostic factor in early stage cancers of all types. The method, know as Molecular Lymphatic Mapping, uses traditional dye / radioactive tracer based techniques in conjunction with a nucleic acid marker to identify and label the SLN, not only for current diagnostic methods, but for archival purposes. In addition, MLM can be used to deliver a therapeutic gene or genes to the SLN to activate tumor immunity to tumor cells, and / or to inhibit tumor metastases. The methods may be combined with therapeutic intervention including chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

The invention relates to a device (40) for standard uptake value, SUV, determination during an emission tomography imaging procedure of a patient. The device receives SUV-related data required for SUV determination, and event data relating to one or more events that may affect the SUV determination. The SUV-related data includes a time of administration of the radiotracer dose to the patient. The event data includes at least one of: a time at which an emission tomography imaging procedure of the patient is performed, patient motion data, patient position data, and patient vital signs data. An anomalous event determination unit (42) determines, based on the event data, anomalous event information indicative of one or more anomalous events that affect the SUV determination. An SUV determination unit (43) determines the SUV based on said SUV-related data taking into account the anomalous event information.

A precursor used for labeling hepatocyte receptors and applied to radiotracers for imaging or pharmaceutical compositions for liver cancers is revealed. The precursor is a bifunctional compound. The bifunctional group includes a trisaccharide structure and a diamide dimercaptide (N2S2) ligand. The trisaccharide has high affinity to asialoglycoprotein receptors (ASGPR) on surfaces of hepatocytes while N2S2 ligand reacts with radioisotopes to form neutral complexes. Thus the precursor stays on surfaces of hepatocytes to provide radioisotope labeling or treatment effect of liver cancers.

A system and method for performing quantitative lesion analysis in molecular breast imaging (MBI) using the opposing images of a slightly compressed breast that are obtained from the dual-head gamma camera. The method uses the shape of the pixel intensity profiles through each tumor to determine tumor diameter. Also, the method uses a thickness of the compressed breast and the attenuation of gamma rays in soft tissue to determine the depth of the tumor from the collimator face of the detector head. Further still, the method uses the measured tumor diameter and measurements of counts in the tumor and background breast region to determine relative radiotracer uptake or tumor-to-background ratio (T / B ratio).

A camera sub-module is provided for providing tomographic imaging of radiation emissions generated internally by a body. The camera sub-module includes a radiation-emitting layer having a radioactive source for emitting transmission emissions, and at least one radiation-detection layer for contemporaneously detecting and permitting differentiation between the transmission emissions and emissions generated internal to an imaged body administered with a positron-emitting radiotracer. Also provided herein are imaging systems, scanners, and other apparatus and methods.

Novel compounds that find use as imaging agents within nuclear medicine applications (PET imaging) for imaging of cardiac innervation are disclosed. These PET based radiotracers may exhibit increased stability, decreased NE release (thereby reducing side effects), improved quantitative data, and / or high affinity for VMAT over prior radiotracers. Methods of using the compounds to image cardiac innervation are also provided. In some instances the compounds are developed by derivatizing certain compounds with 18F in a variety of positions: aryl, alkyl, a keto, benzylic, beta-alkylethers, gamma-propylalkylethers and beta-proplylalkylethers. Alternatively or additionally, a methyl group a is added to the amine, and / or the catechol functionality is either eliminated or masked as a way of making these compounds more stable.

The online measurement system of radioactive tracers in oil wells head, object of this invention, is characterized by the use of new technology to measure concentrations of tracer activity in real time, using a radiation detector NaI (TI), with features that make it possible to detect up to three different tracers and be able to operate in temperature conditions up to 150° C., which allows to be immersed in a container with fluid coming from the flow stream, achieving with this to increase the sensitivity of the measurements. This system of measurement in the head of production wells will allow having much more data of the tracer activity, avoiding having to transport the operational staff to production wells to carry out sampling test, with all the advantages that this represents.

A method is disclosed herein for imaging at least one autonomic nervous system synaptic center in a subject, as well as a method of diagnosing and / or monitoring a medical condition or disease associated with an autonomic nervous system, and a method of guiding a therapy of such a medical condition or disease. The methods comprise administering to the subject a radioactive tracer which selectively binds to autonomic nervous system synapses; measuring radioactive emission of the tracer to obtain data describing a distribution of the tracer in the body; and analyzing the data in order to identify at least one region exhibiting a high concentration of the tracer. Further disclosed herein are radioactive tracers, uses thereof, and an apparatus, for use in a method disclosed herein.

Systems and methods of treating a patient, including a proton treatment system having a proton delivery unit to direct protons to a target area of a patient, the proton treatment system including a positron emission tomography (PET) system having a detector unit to scan for radiotracers introduced into a patient's body, a processing unit to generate location information corresponding to a target area of the patient based on a scanned radiotracer, a guidance unit to receive the location information from the PET system and to instruct the proton delivery unit to direct protons to the target area according to the location information.

An imaging method and apparatus, the method comprising collecting detector output data from a radiation detector positioned near a subject provided with a radio-active tracer, and resolving individual signals in the detector output data by (i) determining a signal form of signals present in the data, (ii) making parameter estimates of one or more parameters of the signals, wherein the one or more parameters comprise at least a signal temporal position, and (iii) determining the energy of each of the signals from at least the signal form and the parameter estimates. The acceptable subject to detector distance is reduced or increased, spatial resolution is improved, tracer dose or concentration is reduced, subject radiation exposure is reduced and / or scanning time is reduced.

A method for image reconstruction of moving radionuclide distributions. Its particular embodiment is for single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging of awake animals, though its techniques are general enough to be applied to other moving radionuclide distributions as well. The invention eliminates motion and blurring artifacts for image reconstructions of moving source distributions. This opens new avenues in the area of small animal brain imaging with radiotracers, which can now be performed without the perturbing influences of anesthesia or physical restraint on the biological system.

The present invention provides a system and method for performing a single-scan rest-stress cardiac measurement. In one aspect, the system includes a positron emission tomography (PET) imaging system, a source of a first PET radiotracer for administration to a subject, a source of a second PET radiotracer for administration to a subject, and a processor. The processor has non-transient computer readable media programmed with instructions to obtain PET images of the subject administered with the radiotracer. Furthermore, the computer readable media is programmed with instructions to process the PET images with a non-steady-state, multi-compartment parametric model. An output of the non-steady-state, multi-compartment parametric model is a measure of myocardial blood flow for both a rest state and a stress state of the subject.

The present invention relates to a multimodal imaging apparatus (1a, 1b) for imaging a process (63) in a subject (23), said process (63) causing the emission of gamma quanta (25, 61), said apparatus (1a, 1b) comprising a scintillator (3) including scintillator elements (31) for capturing incident gamma quanta (25, 61) generated by the radiotracer and for emitting scintillation photons (26) in response to said captured gamma quanta (25, 61), a photodetector (5) including photosensitive elements (33) for capturing the emitted scintillation photons (26) and for determining a spatial distribution of the scintillation photons, and a readout electronics (7) for determining the impact position of an incident gamma quantum in the scintillator (3) and / or a parameter indicative of the emission point of the gamma quantum (25, 61) in the subject (23) based on the spatial distribution of the scintillation photons, wherein the imaging apparatus (1a, 1b) is configured to be switched between a first operation mode for detecting low energy gamma quanta and a second operation mode for detecting high energy gamma quanta, wherein the high energy gamma quanta have a higher energy than the low energy gamma quanta, and the scintillator (3) is arranged to capture incident gamma quanta (25, 61) from the same area of interest (65) in the first operation mode and in the second operation mode without requiring a relative movement of the subject (23) versus the scintillator (3), wherein the scintillator (3) comprises an array of scintillator elements (31) including a first region with high energy scintillator elements (27) for capturing high energy gamma quanta and a second region with low energy scintillator elements (29) for capturing low energy gamma quanta; and / or the apparatus (1a, 1b) further comprises a positioning mechanism (35) for changing the orientation and / or position of the scintillator elements (31), in particular for tilting the scintillator elements (31), to switch the imaging apparatus (1a, 1b) between the first operation mode and the second operation mode.

A method for determining the number of millicuries to be administered to a patient so as to deliver a given centigray (cGy) dose to either the patient's lean body or the patient's total body. The method includes the steps of injecting a radioactive tracer into a patient, determining radiation levels in the whole body, calculating a geometric mean based on the radiation levels, determining the percent-injected activity remaining in the body at each time point, plotting the percent-injected activity versus calculated time from infusion on a log-linear graph, determining the effective half live and the rate of clearance from the log-linear graph, cross-indexing the effective half-life value with the patient's body weight, and multiplying the determined amount of therapeutic millicuries per centigray by the amount of desired centigray to be administered.

The invention discloses a visual test device for penetration grouting of broken coal and rock mass and a test method of the visual test device. The device comprises a fully transparent grouting barrel, wherein the lower end of the fully transparent grouting barrel is connected with a base, a sealing pressure head and a hollow loading pressure head are arranged at the upper end, a sealing ring is arranged around the sealing pressure head, and an exhaust pipe and an exhaust valve are arranged at the top; an electric cement mixing station, a controllable high-pressure pneumatic grouting pump anda digital display multi-element information monitoring system are communicated with a grouting conveying hole and a base grouting hole in the base through a high-pressure-resistant grouting pipe and aflange plate; a high-speed video camera is used for observing the diffusion form and the whole process of slurry containing non-radioactive tracers such as alizarin red or carmine in the broken coaland rock mass in real time. The device and the method have the beneficial effects that the device is transparent and visible, reasonable in structure, simple to manufacture, low in cost, safe to operate and reliable to use.

The online measurement system of radioactive tracers in oil wells head, object of this invention, is characterized by the use of new technology to measure concentrations of tracer activity in real time, using a radiation detector NaI (TI), with features that make it possible to detect up to three different tracers and be able to operate in temperature conditions up to 150° C., which allows to be immersed in a container with fluid coming from the flow stream, achieving with this to increase the sensitivity of the measurements. This system of measurement in the head of production wells will allow having much more data of the tracer activity, avoiding having to transport the operational staff to production wells to carry out sampling test, with all the advantages that this represents.

A method is disclosed for minimising the diameter of the magnet poles of a cyclotron system for production of radioactive tracers. The method selects an operation mode having vz defined below the critical resonance value of vz=½ and chooses a valley technique having shallow valleys by selecting a first magnet pole parameter defining a valley gap accepting a narrow spaced RF electrode system and size facilitating a vacuum conductance necessary for obtaining a low enough pressure. The method then defines a second magnet pole parameter by setting a sector gap size. The magnetic azimuthal field shape is transformed from being "square-wave"-shaped to becoming approximately sinusoidal by increasing the magnetising field. Then an average magnetic field is calculated from the increased magnetising field and the first and second magnet pole parameter. A pole diameter can then be established to obtain a most compact design of the electromagnet for a cyclotron system. A cyclotron system in accordance with the method is also disclosed.

An echo-scintigraphic probe for medical applications and the method of merging images. It is constituted by the union of an ultrasound probe suitably integrated, both in geometric terms, and in terms of image processing, with a scintigraphic probe or gamma camera (3). With a single application of said probe, one is able to provide a double image of the object under examination. The ultrasound probe is housed in the head, above the plane of the collimator and kept projecting to favor the direct contact with the body part of the patient to be examined. The collimator is able to obtain images of the biodistribution of a radiolabelled drug by radiation with frontal incidence, maintaining the characteristics of the ultrasound probe. The probe is applicable to both clinical diagnosis and intraoperative diagnosis of cancer with the use of radio tracers. A guided diagnostic method is disclosed that realizes a functional integration of a pair of ultrasound and scintigraphic images concurrently obtained by the echo-scintigraphic probe.

The present invention belongs to the field of chemical synthesis, and is especially fluorinating and substituting reaction process for synthesizing 18F labeled positive electron radioactive tracer. The process includes the following steps: 1. transferring 18F ion from medical cyclotron and water to accepting bottle and leading to QMA column; 2. eluting 18F ion in QMA column with K2CO3, acetoitrile and ionic liquid, and heating 18F ion in a reactor bottle under protection of inert gas; 3. dissolving the precursor in acetonitrile and adding to the reactor bottle, and heating under protection of inert gas; 4. cooling, hydrolyzing and purifying the solution inside the reactor bottle; and 5. separating and collecting the target product from the solution. The process may adopt microwave heating. The present invention has the features of multipurpose, great yield, high efficiency, stable process, short synthesis period, low cost, etc.

A method for determining the number of millicuries to be administered to a patient as a dose so as to establish a given centigray (cGy) dose to either the patient's lean body or the patient's total body. The method includes the steps of injecting a radioactive tracer into a patient, determining radiation levels in the whole body, calculating a geometric mean based on the radiation levels, determining the percent-injected activity remaining in the body at each time point, plotting the percent-injected activity versus calculated time from infusion on a log-linear graph, determining the effective half live and the rate of clearance from the log-linear graph, cross-indexing the effective half-life value with the patient's body weight, and multiplying the determined amount of therapeutic millicuries per centigray by the amount of desired centigray to be administered.

One aspect of the present invention relates to imaging a patient to determine whether he or she has suffered a myocardial infarction. According to this method, a patient is injected with a bolus having a radioactive tracer. A representative cycle is produced for both the right ventricular passage of the bolus and the left ventricular passage of the bolus based on planar coordinates over time of scintillation events of the tracer. A time activity curve based on activity in each segment of the respective representative cycles is generated. When a segment of heart muscle is damaged its contraction ceases or lags behind the normal surrounding myocardium resulting in a phase shift in the adjacent blood pool.

A method and system for non-invasive quantitative assessment of radionuclide tracer levels in the blood stream. The method relies on the finding that the gamma-radiation signal acquired using a gamma scintillation probe, is the resultant from a wave-component with changing amplitude, resulting from the radiotracer in the bloodstream and a non-wave background component resulting from radiotracer distributed throughout the tissue surrounding the arterial vessel. The method involves phase-sensitive conversion of the ‘input signal’, extracting there from an output signal representing the signal component originating from the bloodstream, using the changes in arterial blood volume as the reference wave-form. A particular aspect of the invention concerns methods of quantitative PET or SPECT imaging wherein the concentration of radionuclides in the blood stream as a function of time after injection is assessed using the method of the invention.

The present invention discloses a DBN based separation method of a mixture of dual-tracer single-acquisition PET signals labelled with the same isotope. It predicts the two separate PET signals by establishing a complex mapping relationship between the dynamic mixed concentration distribution of the same isotope-labeled dual-tracer pairs and the two single radiotracer concentration images. Based on the compartment models and the Monte Carlo simulation, the present invention selects three sets of the same radionuclide-labeled tracer pairs as the objects and simulates the entire PET process from injection to scanning to generate enough training sets and testing sets. When inputting the testing sets into the constructed universal deep belief network trained by the training sets, the prediction results show that the two individual PET signals can been reconstructed well, which verifies the effectiveness of using the deep belief network to separate the dual-tracer PET signals labelled with the same isotope.

A method and system for acquiring a series of medical images during a common imaging process, includes a plurality of detectors configured to be arranged to acquire gamma rays emitted from a subject as a result of multiple radiotracers administered to the subject and communicate signals corresponding to acquired gamma rays. A data processing system is configured to receive the signals from the plurality of detectors and identify temporal information and energy information of photons of the acquired gamma rays. A reconstruction system is configured to receive the signals, the temporal information, and the energy information from the data processing system and reconstruct therefrom a series of medical images of the subject, wherein at least one of the images in the series of medical images corresponds to only to information acquired from gamma rays emitted as a result of a given one of the multiple radiotracers.