Abstract
Positron emission tomography (PET) is a diagnostic method showing general biodistribution of positron radiotracers, the most widely and routinely used of which is 2-[18F]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG). FDG is a glucose analogue containing radionuclide fluorine 18F, which decays by positron (β+) emission, with a half-life of 109.7 min. Diagnosis with the use of FDG-PET (“PET”) combines high imaging quality (mainly sensitivity and resolution as compared to “conventional scintigraphy”) and radiotracers with a favourable biodistribution and a relatively high affinity for both tumour and inflammatory cells. As a result, what is a disadvantage for oncologic imaging is a benefit for imaging of inflammations. PET scanner was adequate to provide a “functional metabolic” image of radiotracer biodistribution, however, without any anatomical-morphological information. The current hybrid PET/CT imaging systems are a combination of both methods (PET and CT), providing the respective image in the same scope and at relatively close time points. PET/CT scanners have also reduced the scanning time by about one half as compared to the initial PET scanners and increased image resolution. CT may be performed both in the low-dose (LD) and in the high-dose (HD) diagnostic mode with the possibility to use both positive and negative contrasts.
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Řehák, Z. (2017). Imaging Techniques: Positron Emission Tomography in GCA and PMR. In: Rovenský, J., Leeb, B., Štvrtinová, V., Imrich, R. (eds) Polymyalgia Rheumatica and Giant Cell Arteritis. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52222-7_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52222-7_9
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