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Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by a progressive loss of controlled cognitive processes, and neuroimaging studies at early stages of AD provide an opportunity to tease out the neural correlates of controlled processes. Accordingly, controlled and automatic memory performance was assessed with the Process Dissociation Procedure in 50 patients diagnosed with questionable Alzheimer's disease (QAD). The patients' brain glucose metabolism was measured using FDG-PET. After a follow-up period of 36 months, 27 patients had converted to AD, while 23 remained stable. Both groups showed a similar decrease in controlled memory processes but preserved automatic processes at entry into the study. Voxel-based cognitive and metabolic correlations showed that a decrease in controlled memory processes was preferentially correlated with lower activity in the dorsomedial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortices in very early AD patients. In stable QAD patients, reduced controlled performance in verbal memory correlated with impaired activity in the left anterior hippocampal structure. The results demonstrate the central role of a medial frontal-posterior cingulate network for controlled processing of episodic memory in the early stages of AD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The use of a polymeric solid support loaded with a long alkyl chain quaternary ammonium allows the rapid and efficient recovery of cyclotron produced [18F]F− from [18O]water to a low water content organic solution compatible with fast nucleophilic labelling of most precursors for PET radiopharmaceuticals in high yield. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We herein describe the straightforward synthesis of a stable pyridyl(4-methoxyphenyl)iodonium salt and its [18F] radiolabeling within a one-step, fully automated and cGMP compliant radiosynthesis of [18F]UCB-H ([18F]7), a PET tracer for the imaging of synaptic vesicle glycoprotein 2A (SV2A). Over the course of 1 year, 50 automated productions provided 34 ± 2% of injectable [18F]7 from up to 285 GBq (7.7 Ci) of [18F]fluoride in 50 min (uncorrected radiochemical yield, specific activity of 815 ± 185 GBq/μmol). The successful implementation of our synthetic strategy within routine, high-activity, and cGMP productions attests to its practicality and reliability for the production of large doses of [18F]7. In addition to enabling efficient and cost-effective clinical research on a range of neurological pathologies through the imaging of SV2A, this work further demonstrates the real value of iodonium salts for the cGMP 18F-PET tracer manufacturing industry, and their ability to fulfill practical and regulatory requirements in that field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Radio-HPLC is an essential method to assess the purity of PET radiopharmaceuticals. The usual NaI scintillator radiodetector requires heavy, costly and cumbersome lead shielding. The luminescence LB 500 fLumo detector has been developed to tackle these drawbacks and achieve high sensitivity. The fLumo uses a photon counting detector combined with a flow-through cell modified with a solid melt-on scintillator only sensitive to the positron. This study demonstrates the usefulness of the fLumo for analysis and purification of PET radiopharmaceuticals. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Using positron emission tomography (PET) and regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) measurements, we investigated the cerebral correlates of consciousness in a sequence learning task through a novel application of the Process Dissociation Procedure, a behavioral paradigm that makes it possible to separately assess conscious and unconscious contributions to performance. Results show that the metabolic response in the anterior cingulate/mesial prefrontal cortex (ACC/MPFC) is exclusively and specifically correlated with the explicit component of performance during recollection of a learned sequence. This suggests a significant role for the ACC/MPFC in the explicit processing of sequential material. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]