HAI: GE starts phase 3 trials for neuroimaging agent

GE Healthcare presented positive results from its multicenter phase 2 study of flutemetamol, a PET agent for brain imaging, at the 4th annual Human Amyloid Imaging (HAI) meeting in Toronto on April 9.

The purpose of the phase 2 study was to investigate the efficacy of flutemetamol in differentiating between patients with clinically probable Alzheimer’s disease and cognitively intact healthy volunteers, said GE.

Subjects with a high probability of amyloid (27 Alzheimer’s disease patients) and a low probability of amyloid (25 healthy subjects) underwent PET imaging with flutemetamol in the study. In addition, 20 subjects with a memory disorder known as mild cognitive impairment, which may represent early Alzheimer’s disease, were enrolled and imaged with flutemetamol, added GE.

The flutemetamol phase 3 trial has already commenced with recruitment and imaging of patients at multiple sites in the U.S. and Europe, said GE.

Around the web

RBMA President Peter Moffatt discusses some of the biggest obstacles facing the specialty in the new year. 

Deepak Bhatt, MD, director of the Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital and principal investigator of the TRANSFORM trial, explains an emerging technique for cardiac screening: combining coronary CT angiography with artificial intelligence for plaque analysis to create an approach similar to mammography.

A total of 16 cardiology practices from 12 states settled with the DOJ to resolve allegations they overbilled Medicare for imaging agents used to diagnose cardiovascular disease.