Today I made a trip to Yale New Haven hospital to participate in a clinical trial. The study is PET Imaging of Beta-Cell mass in Healthy and T1DM with 18F-FP-DTBZ and B/I Infusion. What that means is that they are developing a way to measure the number of insulin secreting cells in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus. At this time, there is no good way to measure these cells. Having a method to measure these cells may help them find ways to keep these cells working and prevent people from developing diabetes. They will use a PET (Positron Emission Tomography) to identify the insulin secreting cells. A radioactive isotope will be injected into my arm. The radio tracer will attach to insulin secreting cells in my body. The tracer will give off gamma-rays that are detected by the PET scanner to create images of my pancreas.
When I arrived at the hospital I met Dr. Gary Cline who is the principal investigator of the trial. Dr. Cline sat down and discussed the procedure and the trial and what the hope to accomplish. I was then admitted to my room where a doctor would insert an arterial line. Before the line was put in I was warned of the pain that may accompany the insertion, luckily I had very little pain and felt great. After an hour I was given an IV and was ready to have the two hour PET scan. Once in the room for the scan I was setup for the test and ready to go. Just before the test began Dr. Cline came over and informed me that the test could not go on due to one of the drugs not being present. It turned out that this was not a bad thing at all, I was able to sit down with Dr. Cline and the nurses for the next hour or so and share my story and also learn a lot about the research that they do. I'm very much so looking forward to going back in a month or so for the scan. Everyone that I worked with today was very friendly and made me feel right at home.
When I arrived at the hospital I met Dr. Gary Cline who is the principal investigator of the trial. Dr. Cline sat down and discussed the procedure and the trial and what the hope to accomplish. I was then admitted to my room where a doctor would insert an arterial line. Before the line was put in I was warned of the pain that may accompany the insertion, luckily I had very little pain and felt great. After an hour I was given an IV and was ready to have the two hour PET scan. Once in the room for the scan I was setup for the test and ready to go. Just before the test began Dr. Cline came over and informed me that the test could not go on due to one of the drugs not being present. It turned out that this was not a bad thing at all, I was able to sit down with Dr. Cline and the nurses for the next hour or so and share my story and also learn a lot about the research that they do. I'm very much so looking forward to going back in a month or so for the scan. Everyone that I worked with today was very friendly and made me feel right at home.
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