Home > News and Events > Symposium & Workshop Reports
E-mail this page 
Imaging the Pancreatic Beta Cell
Workshop Hosted by NIBIB, NIDDK and JDRFI
Bethesda Marriott Hotel
5151 Pooks Hill Road
Bethesda, Maryland
April 21-22, 2003
Background:
Diabetes is a devastating disease that affects 16 million Americans. Type 1 diabetes results from the immune destruction of the pancreatic beta cell and loss of its secreted product, insulin. Type 2 diabetes results in an insulin resistant individual when the beta cells are no longer able to produce enough insulin to overcome this reduced response in the tissues. Recent advances in noninvasive imaging techniques such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Positron Emission Tomography (PET), other nuclear imaging techniques, and optical absorption or fluorescence spectroscopy and imaging, make it likely that a clinical exam to monitor beta cell number, mass, function, or lymphocyte infiltration/inflammatory activity can soon be established. This would allow at-risk individuals to be monitored prior to onset of diabetes. Patients could be monitored over the course of their disease, to follow individual responses to therapy, and to assess success of engraftment following islet transplantation. Researchers would learn about the natural history of diabetes.
The National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International (JDRFI) held a workshop, Imaging the Pancreatic Beta Cell, on Monday, April 21 through Tuesday, April 22, 2003 at the Bethesda Marriott Hotel, 5151 Pooks Hill Road, Bethesda, Maryland. The goals for this meeting were to report on ongoing work in the area of beta cell imaging using MRI, PET, ultrasound or optical technologies, form community among those researchers who are interested in this area, and help NIH identify obstacles and opportunities toward a clinical exam for the measurement of pancreatic beta cell mass, number, function, inflammation, or engraftment. The workshop agenda and final report can be accessed below.
|
