Molecular

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Researchers Find Protein 'Switch' Central to Heart Cell Division

In a study that began in a pair of infant siblings with a rare heart defect, Johns Hopkins researchers say they have identified a key molecular switch that regulates heart cell division and normally turns the process off around the time of birth. Their research, they report, could advance efforts to turn the process back on and regenerate heart tissue damaged by heart attacks or disease.

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PET/MR: The opportunities are almost unlimited

MRI has become the gold standard for many indications in cardiac imaging, apart from imaging the coronary arteries. For function and morphology assessment, MRI is the leading technology. A further advance into as yet unknown territory is myocardial imaging aided by one of the first integrated 3-Tesla PET/MR systems currently used at the Institute of Radiology, Essen University Hospital,…

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UK researchers are working on a new MRI technique

UK researchers are working on a new MRI technique called hyperpolarised MRI – or Dynamic Nuclear Polarisation (DNP) – that can utilise more of the available nuclei than traditional MRI, helping to overcome some of its limitations by increasing sensitivity 10,000-fold or more. DNP is part of a longer-term aim to improve cancer mortality with the help of novel cancer imaging tools.

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What’ s new in the world of radiology?

Radiology constantly evolves. There are technical advances in terms of the capabilities of various modalities, greater clarity from contrast agents that are also safer for patients, and innovation in techniques that gains even greater performance from existing equipment, or enables further development.

Ultra High Field Magnetic Resonance

2011 brought a second year for European and US scientists to meet up at the Annual Scientific Symposium on Ultra High Field Magnetic Resonance, held at the Max Delbrück Centre for Molecular Medicine Berlin-Buch (MDC), Germany, to present and discuss their recent findings. Along with technical improvements, the main issues of the one-day gathering were cardiac, cerebral and molecular MR imaging.…

New biomarkers allow for better diagnosis in multiple sclerosis

Biomarkers – mainly defined as surrogates serving as indicators for specific biological states – play an ever-increasing role in neuroscience and especially in the management of multiple sclerosis, scientists reported today at the 21st Meeting of the European Neurological Society (ENS) in Lisbon. In analyzing gene expression patterns, immunological changes and imaging abnormalities,…

Contrast enhanced tumour studies

Medical imaging has recently advanced so rapidly that it should halt. Applying more power to computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners is becoming too dangerous for patients and healthcare workers. Magnets for the next-generation MRIs are so powerful that they must be moved to a separate building on hospital campuses, while CT radiation levels have risen to alarming…

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Imaging is undergoing massive changes

Although developments in molecular imaging still do not reach the high expectations placed upon them, the change in imaging is very obvious. Having been limited to the imaging of morphology, nowadays information on tissue characteristics, blood vessels or the metabolic behaviour of tumours provide many more insights, for example into response behaviour.

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Prospects: Radiology is on a most advanced pathway in molecular imaging

Molecular imaging (MI) appears as an unavoidable challenge for the future of imaging, because MI is able to characterise cellular and molecular processes and will serve as a guide for new targeted or personalised therapies. However, MI appears as hype for many radiologists because it is too far from clinical practice. In reality, MI is already part of clinical practice using PET and targeted…

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Breast imaging in 2025

A leading radiologist is forecasting a ‘paradigm shift’ in breast imaging. Dr Peter Brader, from Department of Radiology, Division for Molecular and Gender Imaging, Medical University Vienna, envisages that diagnosis and treatment will move from a ‘one size fits all’ approach to one of personalised molecular medicine by 2025. He also foresees greater use of theranostics with combinations…

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