New Technology at Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Although ORNL is not licensed to distribute radioactive agents approved for human use, a variety of agents and new technologies developed at ORNL are provided as radiochemicals and used in physician-sponsored clinical protocols . Some, like BMIPP, have been commercialized for routine use. Examples include the ORNL-developed BMIPP cardiac imaging agent which has been commercialized by Nihon Medi-Physics in Japan. This agent had also been used in several research protocols, and an example is shown from the Clinic for Nuclear Medicine in Bonn, Germany (Figure 1).
The ORNL tungsten-188/rhenium-188 generator (Figure 2) provides carrier-free rhenium-188 for a wide variety of therapeutic applications. The use of liquid-filled rhenium-188 balloons for restenosis therapy after angioplasty has been successfully evaluated in multiple clinical sites throughout the world and an example showing pathology results from a swine study for inhibition in a coronary restenosis model (Figure 3).
Rhenium-188-labeled HEDP agent is also used been developed as a cost-effective alternative to other agents for bone pain palliation of metastatic disease, as shown in a study from Bonn, Germany (Figure 4).
Examples of other agents developed in the ORNL Program include an orally administered radioactive fat which is use for evaluation of pancreatic insufficiency by a simple urine test (Figure 5), radioactive agents for cerebral imaging to evaluate activity of the muscarinic-cholinergic receptor (Figure 6), and the use of radioactive agents for evaluation of the effects of new insulin sensitizing drugs on lipid and glucose metabolism in animal models of Type II diabetes (Figure 7).
New Technology at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (entire presentation)
