LOS ANGELES (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- RadNet Inc.(Nasdaq:RDNT), a national leader in providing high-quality, cost-effective, fixed-site outpatient diagnostic imaging services through a network of 250 owned and/or operated outpatient imaging centers, announced it has joined a research study, the Imaging and Genetic Biomarkers for Alzheimer's Disease (ImaGene) study. The study is supported in part by GE Healthcare and sponsored by the Jim Easton Consortium for Alzheimer's Disease Drug Discovery and Biomarkers, and, the National Institute of Aging.

The ImaGene study, launched by the UCLA-Easton Center in 2008, is a six-year long observational biomarker study. The purpose of the study is to investigate the potential interaction between genes, proteins, amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) imaging and MRI brain imaging in aging and the prodromal stages of Alzheimer's disease.

Vizamyl(TM) (Flutemetamol F18), a radioactive tracer used in PET imaging of the brain, will be employed in this trial. This tracer will be utilized to estimate beta amyloid neuritic plaque density in adult patients with cognitive impairment problem in support of the study. Vizamyl was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in October 2013.
RadNet's Role in Alzheimer's Disease Study

Patients who meet the study protocol's criteria will have a PET/CT scan with Vizamyl at a RadNet radiology facility. The imaging will be performed at Liberty Pacific Advanced Imaging (Los Angeles) and Beverly Tower Advanced Imaging (Beverly Hills, CA).

"Beta amyloid radiotracers, such as Vizamyl, can help physicians and researchers to assess patients with cognitive impairment, including AD, and may help rule out AD as a diagnosis," said Judith Rose, M.D., RadNet medical director of PET/CT. "This collaboration builds upon an earlier research partnership with GE Healthcare where we evaluated Vizamyl prior to FDA approval."

"We are excited by the potential for these imaging techniques to help researchers better understand how Alzheimer's disease develops," said Dr. Rose. "RadNet's extensive experience with multiple new generation PET dementia imaging agents has helped advance some of the most promising AD research studies."

"The addition of an amyloid PET scan to this study may lead to a higher accuracy of disease ascertainment than we currently have in the parent project," said Liana Apostolova, M.D., UCLA associate professor-in-residence of neurology. "This supplemental information may help in future analyses. For instance, one might be able to ascertain which demographic, imaging, genetic or environmental factors including exercise, intellectual attainment or other variables, are associated with amyloid deposition or with rate of decline in the amyloid positive and negative groups. This will allow the study to identify how amyloid pathology possibly impacts these associations. As we investigate the molecular and genetic changes in those who are predestined to develop AD we can potentially uncover novel disease mechanisms and new therapeutic avenues."

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