Fukui Prefecture is home to a large concentration of nuclear power facilities, and local residents have a strong interest in radiation. Against this background, the Biomedical Imaging Research Center was established at Fukui Medical University in fiscal year 1994 as part of the medical application of radiation. The Center promotes research on the medical applications of radiation and other high-energy electromagnetic waves. Using a cyclotron and positron emission tomography (PET) scanners, we visualize biological functions and pathological processes, with the aim of advancing basic and clinical research on disease diagnosis and prevention.
In conventional clinical medicine, X-ray radiography was once the only form of medical imaging. The invention of X-ray computed tomography (CT) in 1972 led to the emergence of a variety of medical imaging modalities. X-ray CT, ultrasonography, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are particularly effective for diagnosing morphological abnormalities in organs. In contrast, nuclear medicine imaging, which uses radioisotopes, is well suited to depicting functional abnormalities in organs and can detect disease before morphological changes become apparent. PET is a form of nuclear medicine imaging that uses very short-lived radioisotopes. It offers the advantage of measuring metabolic functions in the body and is expected to contribute to elucidating the pathophysiology of many diseases involving the brain, heart, and malignant tumors. More recently, techniques for functional measurements using MRI have also been developed, and further advances in these noninvasive functional imaging methods are anticipated.
Meanwhile, rapid advances in biochemistry and molecular biology have revealed abnormalities at the genetic level in aging, degeneration, carcinogenesis, and various diseases, and numerous molecules have been reported to be involved in these abnormalities. Positron-emitting radionuclides produced by cyclotrons are well suited for labeling these molecules, and we conduct basic research aimed at imaging functional abnormalities at the molecular level.
Director, Biomedical Imaging Research Center
Yasushi Kiyono
