At present, over 300 substrates and drugs have been labeled with positron-emitters for use in the study of various biological functions in vivo. In the brain, PET has been applied in the study of local glucose and oxygen utilization, blood flow, protein synthesis, and neurotransmitter uptake and binding. Funding from Children's annual Festival of Trees has allowed a number of important programs to be developed within the PET Center.
Epilepsy is particularly devastating in the pediatric age group.
Infants and children whose seizures are recurrent, difficult to control, and prolonged tend to have the worst prognosis in terms of cognitive outcome. These children are often ideal candidates for surgical removal of the epileptic focus in the brain. At CHM, Dr. Chugani is continuing his pioneering work on using PET to define the epileptic focus in the brain for surgical treatment. Already, this has led to a large and successful epilepsy surgery program headed by pediatric neurologists Dr. Chugani and Dr. Betty Koo , an EEG specialist recently recruited from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. Collaborators in this project include Dr. Alexa Canady and Dr. Michael Nigro .