Nuclear Medicine

The section of Nuclear Medicine offers a complete set of diagnostic and therapeutic services, including cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, pulmonary, endocrine, genitourinary and gastrointestinal scanning. Research directions include: developing and comparing scintigraphic, echocardiographic, CT and MR methods in the evaluation of cardiac pathophysiology; developing quantitative metabolic imaging techniques for cancer, cardiovascular disease and other conditions using SPECT systems; advancing the deployment of PACS within Nuclear Medicine and expanding the clinical and research applications of PET.

Office Telephone: (415) 353-1521 - FAX: (415) 353-8571

Research Directions:

• CT/SPECT imaging system: applications in oncology and other disease states
• PET studies of cancer, cardiovascular and neurological diseases
• Feasibility of PET and MRI to characterize myocardial metabolism and flow
• Imaging structure and function in small animals with CT/SPECT

Recent Key References:

Botvinick EH. Scintigraphic blood pool and phase image analysis: the optimal tool for the evaluation of resynchronization therapy. J Nucl Cardiol 2003; 10(4):424-8. Review.

Fong KD, Song HM, Nacamuli RP, Franc BL, et al. Apoptosis in a rodent model of cranial suture fusion: in situ imaging and gene expression analysis. Plast Reconstr Surg 2004; 113(7):2037-47.

Franc BL, Mandl SJ, Siprashvili Z, Wender P, Contag CH. Breaching biological barriers: protein translocation domains as tools for molecular imaging and therapy. Mol Imaging 2003; 2(4):313-23. Review.

Heller GV, Bateman TM, Johnson LL, Cullom SJ, Case JA, Galt JR, Garcia EV, Haddock K, Moutray KL, Poston C, Botvinick EH, et al. Clinical value of attenuation correction in stress-only Tc-99m sestamibi SPECT imaging. J Nucl Cardiol 2004; 11(3):273-81.

Pham KH, Botvinick EH. Increased right ventricular activity: artifact of camera head misalignment. J Nucl Cardiol 2003; 10(5):575-6.

Wang ZJ, Reddy GP, Gotway MB, Higgins CB, Jablons DM, Ramaswamy M, Hawkins RA, Webb WR. Malignant pleural mesothelioma: evaluation with CT, MR imaging, and PET. Radiographics 2004; 24(1):105-19. Review.

Weiss B, Vora A, Huberty J, Hawkins RA, Matthay KK. Secondary myelodysplastic syndrome and leukemia following 131I-metaiodobenzylguanidine therapy for relapsed neuroblastoma. J Pediatr Hematol Oncol 2003; 25(7):543-7.