GE Healthcare presents positive trial data for imaging agent

GE Healthcare has presented new data that demonstrates the potential benefits offered by [18F]flutemetamol, its new positron emission tomography (PET) amyloid imaging agent.

Presented at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference 2012, the data indicates a strong concordance between [18F]flutemetamol PET images and beta amyloid brain histopathology.

It confirms that the compound could be useful as an agent to detect beta amyloid plaque, a pathology associated with Alzheimer's disease.

Currently, definitive diagnosis of the condition requires post-mortem examination of the brain for indicators such as neuritic beta amyloid plaques.

Jonathan Allis, general manager for positron emission tomography at GE Healthcare Medical Diagnostics, said this new technique has "the potential to be part of a larger diagnostic workup that may help doctors rule out Alzheimer's disease by reliably showing the absence of amyloid deposits in patients with unexplained loss of cognitive function".

An extensive range of GE Healthcare imaging devices – including magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound, X-ray, electrocardiogram, IT and monitoring equipment – will be used at the forthcoming 2012 Olympic Games in London.