Positron emission tomography: a clinical and biological research tool

Medical and biological imaging has undergone a revolution in the past decade. Positron emission tomography (PET) has been developed to visualize biochemical and physiological phenomena in living humans and animals. For instance, blood flow, blood volume, glucose metabolism, amino acid metabolism, can be quantitatively estimated by means of PET with various radioactive tracers. This functional and molecular imaging technique has progressed rapidly from being a research technique in laboratories to a routine clinical imaging modality. The most widely used radiotracer in routine is 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18FDG), which is an analogue of glucose. Since glucose metabolism is increased many fold in malignant tumors, PET has a major role in the field of clinical oncology and recently in cardiology and neurology. PET is also a valuable tool to study cerebral or cardiac binding sites and to image the expression of reporter genes in small animals. In this review, we summarize the most recent developments in PET imaging with particular reference to the radiotracers available and their application.