Virtual gastroscopy: initial attempt in North American patients.

Background: Virtual endoscopy (VE) is a new evolving technology that describes the 3-D reconstruction of medical image scans to create a visualization similar to that produced by fiber-optic and video endoscopy. The present study was carried out to establish the feasibility of this technique in the upper gastrointestinal tract.

Methods: Ten patients who underwent upper endoscopy for different clinical reasons and who were found to have a normal or near normal examination underwent a spiral computed tomography scan of the lower chest and abdomen.

Functional imaging of a large demyelinating lesion.

Purpose: To determine the metabolic characterization of a large solitary demyelinating lesion.

Methods: Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) studies with 2-deoxy-2-[F-18]fluoro-d-glucose (FDG), carbon-11-methionine (methionine) and carbon-11-choline (choline) were done on the demyelinating lesion.

Results: The demyelinating lesion exhibited a low glucose uptake, prominent methionine uptake and a minimal choline uptake on the PET studies.

A technique utilizing positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance/computed tomography image fusion to aid in surgical navigation and tumor volume determination.

Brain tumors are histologically heterogeneous. A technique for three-dimensional fusing of computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance images (MRI) with positron emission tomography (PET) images is described. This allows the anatomic detail provided by CT or MRI scans to be combined with the information about metabolic activity provided by PET scans.