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Thanks to another list member for bringing this to our attention... Monday June 8, 1998 Company Press Release SOURCE: Guilford Pharmaceuticals Inc. Guilford's Dopascan(R) Subject Of Nine Presentations At Society Of Nuclear Medicine Annual Meeting TORONTO, June 8 /PRNewswire/ -- DOPASCAN(R) Injection, Guilford Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s (Nasdaq: GLFD - news) investigational diagnostic test in development for diagnosing Parkinson's Disease, will be the subject of nine oral presentations at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine, scheduled for June 7-11, 1998 in Toronto, Canada. DOPASCAN(R) is a radiopharmaceutical that labels and quantitates doapamine nerve terminals in the brain. These nerve terminals degenerate in Parkinson's Disease and other parkinsonian conditions. The diagnostic test is administered by injection and allows physicians to obtain images using conventional hospital-based scanning equipment. In the 96 patient multicenter Phase IIB clinical study sponsored by Guilford, entitled ``Multicenter Quantative Spect Evaluation of the Dopamine Transporter Ligand DOPASCAN(R) as a Diagnostic Marker of Parkinson's Disease,'' DOPASCAN(R) was shown to distinguish Parkinson's Disease from non-parkinsonian disorders with a sensitivity and specificity of 98% and 83% respectively. No serious adverse events were attributed to DOPASCAN(R) in this study. The Parkinson's Study Group, Department of Radiology, Yale University School of Medicine conducted this study. ``This study, along with other clinical evaluations previously reported, point to the potential clinical value of DOPASCAN(R) in diagnosing Parkinsonian disorders and distinguishing them from other conditions. We are pleased that so many studies using DOPASCAN(R) have been accepted for presentation for the Society's annual meeting,'' commented Dr. Craig R. Smith, Chairman, President and CEO of Guilford. The other 8 presentations, by various academic groups, include: Evaluation of Patients with Parkinsonism with (I-123) IBF and Beta-CIT SPECT*; SPECT Imaging of the Pre- and Postsynaptic Dopamine System in Dopa-Untreated Parkinson's Disease; Significance on Nonuniform Attenuation Correction in Quantitative Brain I-123 Spect Imaging; Reduced Midbrain Serotonin Transporter Binding in Major Depression as Measured by (123) Beta-CIT SPECT; Depletion- Restoration Studies Reveal the Impact of Endogenous Dopamine and Serotonin on (I-123) Beta-CIT SPECT Imaging in Primate Brain; Effects of Gender, Genetics, and Serotonin Turnover on Availability of Brainstem Serotonin Transporters in Alcoholism; an (I-123) Beta-CIT SPECT Study; Influence of Technical Factors on Quantitative Analysis of I-123 (Beta-CIT) Uptake in the Brain; Assessment in a Phantom Model; and Functional Morphometry of the Striatum in Parkinson's Disease by I-123-CIT SPECT. * Beta-CIT is the scientific name for DOPASCAN(R); SPECT is a tmographic method used for brain imaging. Guilford Pharmaceuticals Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development of polymer-based therapeutics for brain and other cancers, and novel products for the diagnosis and treatment of neurological diseases, including Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's disease, stroke, head trauma, spinal cord injuries, multiple sclerosis, peripheral neuropathies and cocaine addiction. SOURCE: Guilford Pharmaceuticals Inc. Copyright © 1998 PRNewswire. -- Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada [log in to unmask]