Small-animal PET: what is it, and why do we need it?

Small-animal PET refers to imaging of animals such as rats and mice using dedicated PET scanners. Small-animal PET has been used extensively in modern biomedical research. It provides a quantitative measure of the 3-dimensional distribution of a radiopharmaceutical administered to a live subject noninvasively.

A survey of thyroid gland scintigraphy.

Unlabelled: The Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM) published procedure guidelines for thyroid imaging in 1999. We wished to determine how many clinics performing thyroid imaging follow the guidelines and to what extent. Of particular interest to us was the choice of collimator.

18F-FDG imaging: pitfalls and artifacts.

18F-FDG PET is emerging as a useful tool in the staging and restaging of many malignant neoplasms, such as lymphoma, lung cancer, colorectal cancer, head and neck cancer, breast cancer, and melanoma. To accurately interpret 18F-FDG findings one must be familiar with the normal physiologic distribution of the tracer, frequently encountered physiologic variants, and benign pathologic causes of 18F-FDG uptake that can be confused with a malignant neoplasm. The objectives of this article are to (a) describe the mechanism of 18F-FDG uptake, (b) list the patient preparation and pertinent patient history before 18F-FDG imaging, (c) describe the whole-body physiologic distribution of 18F-FDG, (d) list and discuss normal physiologic variants, and (e) list and discuss benign pathologic causes of 18F-FDG uptake.

Treatment of thyroid carcinoma: emphasis on high-dose 131I outpatient therapy.

There is an abundance of evidence indicating that the oral administration of sodium (13I)I-iodide is of value in the management of well-differentiated thyroid cancers. The first step in the management of thyroid cancer is near-total removal of the thyroid gland. Destroying any residual functioning thyroid tissue in the neck or metastatic tissue elsewhere in the body using (131)I after surgery decreases the risk of recurrence and death from well-differentiated thyroid cancers.

Contamination problem with sentinel node localization procedure: a case study.

Lymphoscintigraphy for sentinel node (SN) localization was performed on a 60-y-old man with a melanoma on his back. Skin contamination occurred as a result of the radiopharmaceutical dose administration. Skin contamination could result in a misinterpretation of the SN location.