RADIOPHARMACOLOGY 

The Quarterly Journal of Nuclear Medicine 2001 June;45(2):167-73

Copyright © 2009 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

New concepts in infection/inflammation imaging

Rennen H. J. J. M., Corstens F. H. M., Oyen W. J. G., Boerman O. C.

From the Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Although autol­o­gous leu­ko­cytes, ­labelled ­with 111In or 99mTc, is ­still con­sid­ered the “­gold stan­dard” ­nuclear med­i­cine tech­nique to ­image infec­tion and inflam­ma­tion, ­there is a ­great ­need for a ­less cum­ber­some and ­less haz­ardous ­approach. ­Over the ­last few ­decades the ­range of radio­phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals to inves­ti­gate infec­tious and non-micro­bial inflam­ma­tory dis­or­ders is ­vastly ­expanding. Radio­lab­elled mono­clonal anti­bodies and anti­body-frag­ments, radio­lab­elled chem­o­tactic pep­tides and cyto­kines, and radio­lab­elled anti­bi­o­tics are prom­ising new ­approaches in the ­field of ­nuclear med­i­cine. ­Recently, posi­tron emis­sion tomog­raphy (PET) ­with 18FDG has ­been intro­duced and has ­been ­shown to delin­eate infec­tious and inflam­ma­tory ­foci ­with ­high sen­si­tivity. ­Here, a ­survey is pre­sented of the dif­ferent ­approaches in use or ­under inves­ti­ga­tion.