By: Kurt Woock
More than 5 million people in the US have Alzheimer’s Disease (AD)—one out of every eight persons over the age 65—and, with an aging population, that number is likely to increase, as is the estimated $400 billion dollars of direct and indirect cost of care AD causes. While the search for a viable treatment continues, the diagnostic side of AD care is promising and now there is another new tool that will allow doctors to probe more deeply into a patient’s condition.
On August 16, Siemens Healthcare announced that its syngo®.PET Amyloid Plaque proprietary software has received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is now available.
Joining the new Biograph mCT™ positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET•CT) scanner and PETNET Solutions’ PET radiopharmaceutical production expertise, syngo.PET Amyloid Plaque software is the third unique element in Siemens’ comprehensive imaging solution for the visualization and quantification of amyloid plaques – one of the necessary pathological features of Alzheimer’s disease – in the living brain. Siemens is the first company to offer a comprehensive amyloid imaging solution.
“Our new syngo.PET software, combined with Siemens’ Biograph mCT PET•CT scanner and expertise in the production of PET radiopharmaceuticals, will provide U.S. physicians with a valuable tool for the evaluation of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurologic conditions,” says Britta Fuenfstueck, CEO of Molecular Imaging, Siemens Healthcare, in a press release.
