Neurology

Housed in the new University College Hospital on Euston Road, the Institute of Nuclear Medicine is the largest single site Nuclear Medicine department in the UK. Having state of the art equipment such as SPECT/CT, PET/CT and the first PET/MRI installation in the UK, the department is at the leading edge of neuroimaging applications. Current investigations performed at the centre include:

DaTScan imaging for Parkinsonian syndromes and to differentiate between Alzheimer's Disease and Lewy Body Dementia

The Institute has been active in this area since the onset of this technology, and has been involved in many key publications and research collaborations since.

Imaging of Age related disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and Fronto-Temporal Dementia using FDG PET and new Beta-Amyloid Plaque imaging agents

The introduction of PET/MRI for this application has provided a powerful combination of fused anatomical and functional data from MRI, with the early signs of disease that are only available with PET imaging.

Primary and metastatic Brain cancers

The use of different tracers within the department such as Fluoro-deoxyglucose (FDG), Fluorothymidine (FLT), Fluorocholine and Gallium-68 Neuropeptides offer a wide and varied range of probes to detect and characterize brain tumours.

Epilepsy Imaging

The Institute has extensive experience in FDG brain PET imaging to lateralize and/or find the focus of epileptic fits. This has been recently enhanced by the introduction of simultaneous PET and MRI on our new PET/MRI scanner. To supplement this service, the department are also currently in the process in setting up an ictal/inter-ictal SPECT service for epileptic focus localization. In Professor Peter Ell, and Dr. John Dickson, the department has substantial experience in both the interpretation and also the development of neuroimaging. The department also maintains good and strong relationships with neurologists based at Queen Square (London), and beyond.