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Re: Scans, Pet, Spect and fMRIs?

Posted by pablo1 on November 24, 2004, at 11:43:17

In reply to Scans, Pet, Spect and fMRIs?, posted by denise1904 on November 24, 2004, at 8:08:43

PET scan: http://www.radiologyinfo.org/content/petomography.htm
Sounds just like SPECT scan from what I understand using radioactive injection then tracing blood flow. I read somewhere that fMRI also traces blood flow but is much more detailed than PET. MRI uses a big magnet to get very detailed slices through you, as I understand it's as good as dissecting a corpse. Regular MRI is more like a regular photograph, fMRI (functional MRI) is different in this way:
http://www.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fmri_intro/
"FMRI is a technique for determining which parts of the brain are activated by different types of physical sensation or activity, such as sight, sound or the movement of a subject's fingers. This "brain mapping" is achieved by setting up an advanced MRI scanner in a special way so that the increased blood flow to the activated areas of the brain shows up on Functional MRI scans."

So I think a conventional MRI would provide what you want though I doubt it's detailed enough to spot an individual neuron, it could spot certain parts of the brain being smaller in at least as good of a detail as the naked eye could inspect a dissected brain. fMRI shows whether that part of the brain is actually active during a particular mental activity or state of mind. You may have the meat there but it's not being activated. ADD sufferers experience underactivity in their frontal lobes though their brains look pretty much the same as a normal person's brain.

I just signed up to volunteer for an fMRI study but I suspect they won't accept me because I answered that I had some psychological disorder diagnosis but you never know. There is no way I can pay $5,000 to $10,000 for doing this on my own. I am (considering) paying $3,000 for a full SPECT scan workup including analysis, diagnosis & initial treatment recommendations.

Here's an explanation of SPECT & PET scans though it's not clear to me what the difference is: http://www.spineuniverse.com/displayarticle.php/article231.html

This page gives a similar shorter comparison of SPECT & PET: http://imaginis.com/nuclear-medicine/nuc_pet.asp
They say PET is much more expensive than SPECT.


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