Dr Sally Pimlott, who Chairs the SINAPSE Molecular Imaging Committee, and Dr Adriana Tavares, who was one of the first students to successfully complete a PhD in the SINAPSE Graduate School, were co-authors in a paper that has just appeared in JAMA Neurology – Amyloid Imaging with Carbon-11 Labeled Pittsburgh Compound B for Traumatic Brain Injury; Hong et al, JAMA Neurol November 11, 2013. Another co-author is Professor John Pickard, who was Chair of the SINAPSE International Advisory Board.

There has been considerable interest recently in the sequelae of traumatic brain injury, whether caused by assault, accident or sport. This study concludes that [11C]-PiB shows increased binding following TBI. The specificity of this binding is supported by neocortical [3H]PiB binding in regions of amyloid deposition in the postmortem tissue of patients with TBI. [11C]PiB PET could be valuable in imaging amyloid deposition following TBI.