Tau proteins play an important role in our normal brain function, mainly by helping to stabilize neurons in the brain. But in Alzheimer’s disease, tau proteins can misfold and tangle inside neurons.

A PET scan uses radioactive sugar as a tracer, so you’ll need to switch to a low carb, no-sugar diet 24 hours before the scan. This means avoiding bread, pasta, cereal, milk, and starchy vegetables, ...

A heart PET scan is a noninvasive imaging test that uses a small amount of radiation. It helps doctors understand how the heart functions and whether it is healthy. Cardiac or heart PET scans create ...

PET scans are a form of imaging scan that can take three-dimensional images of the inside of a person’s body. They can help a doctor detect and accurately stage someone’s liver cancer. Doctors might ...

PET scans use a radioactive tracer to generate images of the body for medical analysis. Doctors commonly use PET scans to detect cancer and assess how far it has spread. Radiation exposure from PET ...

A PET scan can help doctors spot cancer that has spread through the body. A doctor may request one during the melanoma diagnostic process if they suspect advanced melanoma cancer. A PET scan is an ...

Sayaka Blickenderfer is a medical and science editor and writer with more than 10 years of experience. She edits and prepares scientific manuscripts and grant proposals for submission. Jane Kim, MD, ...

Dr George Owiti, a radiographer at Kericho County Hospital examines the Chest CT results of a patient admitted to the hospital. [James Wanzala, Standard] Despite recent breakthroughs that have ...

A positron emission tomography (PET) scan is a diagnostic tool that examines body tissue functioning, such as blood flow, oxygen use, and sugar metabolism, to help doctors diagnose and treat disease.

This article was originally published in the 2025 Equine Research Horizons, a publication of Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation. Reprinted with permission.Dr. Mathieu Spriet is an Associate ...