The recommended PK2 dose is 120 mg/m(2), administered every 3 weeks by IV infusion. Liver-specific doxorubicin delivery is achievable using galactosamine-modified polymers, and targeting is also seen in primary hepatocellular tumors.

Objective. Functional neuroimaging studies have shown that experimentally induced acute pain is processed within at least 2 parallel networks of brain structures collectively known as the pain matrix. The relevance of this finding to clinical pain is not known, because no direct comparisons of experimental and clinical pain have been performed in the same group of patients. The aim of this study was to compare directly the brain areas involved in processing arthritic pain and experimental pain in a group of patients with osteoarthritis (OA).Methods. Twelve patients with knee OA underwent positron emission tomography of the brain, using 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG). Scanning was performed during 3 different pain states: arthritic knee pain, experimental knee pain, and pain-free. Significant differences in the neuronal uptake of FDG between different pain states were investigated using statistical parametric mapping software.Results. Both pain conditions activated the pain matrix, but arthritic pain was associated with increased activity in the cingulate cortex, the thalamus, and the amygdala; these areas are involved in the processing of fear, emotions, and in aversive conditioning.Conclusion. Our results suggest that studies of experimental pain provide a relevant but quantitatively incomplete picture of brain activity during arthritic pain. The search for new analgesics for arthritis that act on the brain should focus on drugs that modify this circuitry.

Methodology for PET system modeling using imagespace techniques in the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm is presented. The approach, applicable to both list-mode data and projection data, is of particular significance to EM algorithm implementations which otherwise only use basic system models (such as those which calculate the system matrix elements on the fly). A basic version of the proposed technique can be implemented using image-space convolution, in order to include resolution effects into the system matrix, so that the EM algorithm gradually recovers the modeled resolution with each update. The improved system mod- eling (achieved by inclusion of two convolutions per iteration) results in both enhanced resolution and lower noise, and there is often no need for regularization-other than to limit the number of iterations. Tests have been performed with simulated list-mode data and also with measured projection data from a GE Advance PET scanner, for both [ 18 F]-FDG and [ 124 I]-NaI. The method demonstrates improved image quality in all cases when compared to the conventional FBP and EM methods presently used for clinical data (which do not include resolution modeling). The benefits of this approach for 124 I (which has a low positron yield and a large positron range, usually resulting in noisier and poorer resolution images) are particularly noticeable.Index Terms-Iterative image reconstruction, positron emission tomography (PET).