(68)Ga-Citrate-PET for diagnostic imaging of infection in rats and for intra-abdominal infection in a patient.

Objectives: 67Ga-Citrate has been extensively used for infection and inflammation imaging for the past four decades but has limitations. In the present study, we explored the ability of 68Ga-Citrate to detect Staphylococcus aureus (Staph A) infection in rats and further studied its ability to localize intra-abdominal infection in a patient.

Methods: An infection was induced in male Wistar rats by injecting Staph A in the right thigh muscle.

Potential use of 68Ga-apo-transferrin as a PET imaging agent for detecting Staphylococcus aureus infection.

Introduction: (67)Ga citrate has been extensively used to detect infection and inflammation since 1971. However, its clinical utility is compromised due to several limitations. The present project explored whether (68)Ga-apo-transferrin ((68)Ga-TF), when prepared in vitro, is a useful agent for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of bacterial infection.

Variation in scanning line source sensitivity: a significant source of error in simultaneous emission-transmission tomography.

Transmission measurement is recommended in order to accurately correct for attenuation in myocardial single-photon emission tomography (SPET) studies. It is important that transmission studies are artefact-free, otherwise the attenuation-corrected SPET studies may also be affected. An assumption in transmission studies is that the measured transmission in air used as a reference scan is valid for any camera orientation.