Neuronuclear medicine

The importance of the development of the medical neurosciences is evidenced by the fact that the President of the United States and Congress have declared the 1990s the "decade of the brain." Special emphasis will be placed on managing and treating brain disease and, in particular, salvaging damaged brain from cerebral artery disease, trauma, tumor, and so forth. The advent of brain or cerebral care units in hospitals can be anticipated, analogous to the commonly available coronary care unit that resulted from recent concerted efforts to "conquer" heart disease. This effort will probably lead to a markedly expanded purview for clinical research in central nervous system disease. During the past year, a virtual explosion of publications in the mainstream medical literature on the basic and clinical utilization of nuclear medicine in the neurosciences has occurred. More than 400 substantive papers were published and the majority dealt with some aspect of positron-emission tomography. The more clinically pertinent of these papers are reviewed.