Pet scan: $3000 - $4000
Peanut butter: $3 - $10
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3823377/pdf/nih...
PET scans show many Alzheimer’s patients may not actually have the disease
11–20 of 68 posts
Re: PET scans show many Alzheimer’s patients may not actually have the disease
#12Pet scan: $3000 - $4000
Peanut butter: $3 - $10
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3823377/pdf/nih...
Re: PET scans show many Alzheimer’s patients may not actually have the disease
#13Does that invalidate any studies on treatments for Alzheimer? If it turns out many people who show symptoms don't actually have it, it's no wonder that a treatment is so hard to find.
It reduces these studies' power to detect results. If you thought you had 100 cases and 100 controls, it turns out perhaps you really had 30 cases and 100 controls, and 70 controls misclassified as cases. Power is going to be substantially hurt.
However, it may significantly increase the size of measured effect if you can go back and re-classify the patients - in your example, it may turn an earlier study where only 30 of 100 cases showed improvement to a study where 30 of 30 cases responded to treatment well.
Re: PET scans show many Alzheimer’s patients may not actually have the disease
#14This is amazing news. I love the advances we're making as a society. In that $3-5k cost of running a PET scan, I wonder how much of that is paying professional operators and physicians to interpret the results? Could ML be applied to this problem to reduce the cost of a PET scan?
Apparently they cost around $300 in India.
Re: PET scans show many Alzheimer’s patients may not actually have the disease
#15Pet scan: $3000 - $4000 Peanut butter: $3 - $10 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3823377/pdf/nih...
> Methods: Participants with probable AD (N=18), mild cognitive impairment (MCI, N=24),
other causes of dementia (OD, N=26) and matched controls (OC, N=26) were tested, with closed
eyes, for their ability to detect an odor, one nostril at a time. A container of 14g of peanut butter was opened, held medially at the bottom of a 30 cm ruler, and moved up 1cm at a time during the participants’ exhale. Upon odor detection, the distance between the subject’s nostril and container was measured.
> Results: The mean odor detection distance of AD patients’ left nostril (5.1 cm), and not their right (17.4 cm), was significantly less (F(3,90) = 22.28, p < 0.0001) than the other groups. The mean, standard error, and 95% Confidence Interval of the L R nostril odor detection difference (cm) for AD was −12.4 ±0.5, (−15.0, −9.8); for MCI was −1.9 ±1.2, (−4.2,0.4); for OD was 4.8 ±1.0, (2.6,6.9); and for OC was 0.0 ±1.4 (−2.2,2.1).
Re: PET scans show many Alzheimer’s patients may not actually have the disease
#16This is amazing news. I love the advances we're making as a society. In that $3-5k cost of running a PET scan, I wonder how much of that is paying professional operators and physicians to interpret the results? Could ML be applied to this problem to reduce the cost of a PET scan?
why does an IV bag cost $500?
I want professional operators and physicians to look at my details.
What I don't want is dozens of layers of middlemen or ticket clippers (or healthcare driven by profit).
Re: PET scans show many Alzheimer’s patients may not actually have the disease
#17This is amazing news. I love the advances we're making as a society. In that $3-5k cost of running a PET scan, I wonder how much of that is paying professional operators and physicians to interpret the results? Could ML be applied to this problem to reduce the cost of a PET scan?
The cost isn't just in dollars though. In a PET scan they inject a radioactive dye into your bloodstream. It "exposes you to around the same amount of radiation that you would receive from the general environment over about three years." [1]
The high dollar cost may also be related to newer, more sensitive machines that don't require as much radiation exposure to the patient.
[1] https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtrea...
Re: PET scans show many Alzheimer’s patients may not actually have the disease
#18This is amazing news. I love the advances we're making as a society. In that $3-5k cost of running a PET scan, I wonder how much of that is paying professional operators and physicians to interpret the results? Could ML be applied to this problem to reduce the cost of a PET scan?
why does an IV bag cost $500? I want professional operators and physicians to look at my details. What I don't want is dozens of layers of middlemen or ticket clippers (or healthcare driven by profit).
> why does an IV bag cost $500?
It doesn't outside of the US.
Re: PET scans show many Alzheimer’s patients may not actually have the disease
#19This is amazing news. I love the advances we're making as a society. In that $3-5k cost of running a PET scan, I wonder how much of that is paying professional operators and physicians to interpret the results? Could ML be applied to this problem to reduce the cost of a PET scan?
why does an IV bag cost $500? I want professional operators and physicians to look at my details. What I don't want is dozens of layers of middlemen or ticket clippers (or healthcare driven by profit).
It doesn't but what you are charged for a medical service/medical supply has very, very little to do with what your service/supply actually costs.
Re: PET scans show many Alzheimer’s patients may not actually have the disease
#20Anybody read the words sensitivity, specificity, or gold standard? Just because it doesn't show up on PET doesn't mean squat if PET has a low sensitivity.