Demand for premium nuclear medicine cameras should increase assophisticated techniques such as dual-isotope and monoclonal antibodyimaging proliferate. Realizing the potential of these techniques,however, requires corresponding improvements in camera
Manufacturers of SPECT cameras might improve equipment performancewith an advanced microcast fanbeam collimator developed by NuclearFields. The technology creates ultra-high resolution nuclear imagesthrough the use of uniform casting technology and
Toshiba America Medical Systems used a little marketing pizzazzto unveil an adjustable-angle dual-head gamma camera as a work-in-progressat this month's Society of Nuclear Medicine meeting in Toronto.Rather than display an empty mock-up of the camera,
Elscint has targeted nuclear medicine's growing cardiology segmentwith a gamma camera unveiled at this month's Society of NuclearMedicine meeting in Toronto. Dubbed Apex SPX CardiaL, the fixed90´-angle, dual-head unit spearheads a general upgrade
Multiformat camera maker Camtronics Medical Systems is pursuingOEM partners for its newest camera, following the expiration ofa sole-source contract with GE Medical Systems. Camtronics wasat the Society of Nuclear Medicine meeting in Toronto this
Medasys, a nuclear medicine computer manufacturer, and EncoreMedical Systems, a gamma camera refurbisher and reseller, haveagreed to merge. While details of the merger remain to be workedout and shareholder approval is required for both companies,
Nuclear medicine physicians have access to only one of two Foodand Drug Administration-approved SPECT brain agents because ofa combination of brain SPECT procedure sluggishness and U.S. antitrustregulations. Financial difficulties have apparently claimed
A recent court decision has given the nuclear medicine communitya forum in which to challenge the Nuclear Regulatory Commission'scontroversial license fees for handling radioisotopes. Nuclearmedicine practitioners charge that NRC fees have skyrocketed
The regulation of medical radiation came under fire this monthat a Congressional hearing held to follow up on reports of treatmenterrors in radiation therapy and nuclear medicine. The hearingcould be the first step in an overhaul of the way in which
Nuclear medicine advocates are claiming victory after the U.S.Department of Energy last month requested $2 million to studythe creation of a National Biomedical Tracer Facility to produceradioisotopes. Such a study would be a major step toward securinga
Gamma cameras aren't the only nuclear detectors that will takeadvantage of targeted monoclonal antibody nuclear tracer technology.Nonimaging probes, such as those manufactured by Neoprobe andCare Wise Medical Products (SCAN 9/26/90 and 12/04/91), use
After years of waiting, the U.S. nuclear medicine profession hasbeen granted access to tumor-targeted monoclonal antibody imagingagents for routine clinical use. Apart from its diagnostic benefits,monoclonal antibody technology offers the potential of
It was every doctor's nightmare: a five-part investigative newspaperseries on medical blunders. In emotional prose dripping with descriptionsof "horrible deaths," "hospital cover-ups"and "government laxity," two reporters
Faster review of monoclonal antibody imaging agents by Europeanregulatory authorities led many in the U.S. nuclear medicine fieldto look across the Atlantic for the first commercial success ofthis targeted tracer technology. Unfortunately, the European
Independent Scintillation Imaging Systems (ISIS) of Lachine, Quebec,will build a direct sales and marketing group headquartered outsideBoston to handle U.S. sales of its non-Anger, digital nuclearmedicine camera upon approval by the Food and Drug
The U.S. Department of Energy wants to create a domestic sourcefor isotopes, both stable and radioactive. Witnesses at a Congressionalhearing on Aug. 12, however, criticized the DOE's efforts as inadequate. Nuclear medicine's dependence on a single
Nuclear medicine averted a crisis last month when workers at theworld's main source of the raw material for technetium-99m settledcontract negotiations hours before a strike deadline. A laborwalkout would have caused a major shortage of the most
Syncor International has filed a petition with the Food and DrugAdministration in a move related to the agency's review of radiopharmaceuticalsfor positron emission computed tomography.Syncor, headquartered in Chatsworth, CA, operates 94 nuclear
Regulatory restrictions in the U.S. and a slow-to-start market for single-photon emission computed tomography brain imaging have combined to cut off supplies of one of the two approved SPECT brain imaging agents. To their consternation, nuclear medicine
ADAC Laboratories is riding high on sales of its Genesys SPECTsystems and Pegasys nuclear medicine workstation. The medicalimaging vendor, located in Milpitas, CA, will use this momentumto boost its business outside the U.S. and transfer R&D
An industry of protest has grown up around the five-year-old GEboycott over the company's involvement in nuclear weapons production.Infact, the Boston-based support group for the boycott, receivednationwide publicity last month when its film on GE,
Sopha Medical of Buc, France, has positioned itself to reproducein other medical imaging modalities the targeted R&D and marketingapproach that has proved successful in nuclear medicine, saidDr. Maurice Soustiel, president and CEO. The industrial
ADAC Laboratories claimed at the RSNA meeting last month to havegrown from the third-largest supplier of SPECT cameras in theU.S. to first place in 1991. According to ADAC's analysis of theU.S. SPECT market, the top camera suppliers after itself are
Two different approaches to the nuclear SPECT camera market wereon display at the RSNA meeting last month. There was some debateat the show over the benefits of dedicated versus general-purposenuclear cameras. GE offered a fixed-detector dual-head SPECT
With approval of monoclonal antibody-based radiopharmaceuticalsproceeding faster in Europe than in the U.S., market prospectsfor equipment using these targeted nuclear medicine agents arealso more immediate in that region. Care Wise Medical Products of
