New concepts in infection/inflammation imaging

Although autologous leukocytes, labelled with In-111 or (TC)-T-99m, is Stil l considered the "gold standard" nuclear medicine technique to image infect ion and inflammation, there is a great need for a less cumbersome and less hazardous approach. Over the last few decades the range of radiopharmaceuti cals to investigate infectious and non-microbial inflammatory disorders is vastly expanding. Radiolabelled monoclonal antibodies and antibody-fragment s, radiolabelled chemotactic peptides and cytokines, and radiolabelled anti biotics are promising new approaches in the field of nuclear medicine. Rece ntly, positron emission tomography (PET)with (18)FDG has been introduced an d has been shown to delineate infectious and inflammatory foci with high se nsitivity. Here, a survey is presented of the different approaches in use o f under investigation.