Infection imaging in nuclear medicine

Regardless of advances in medicine, infection continues to play a major role in patients' morbidity and mortality. Nuclear medicine techniques have an important role in the evaluation of patients suspected of harbouring infection. Many different agents may be used in an attempt to image infection. There are, however, a number of important limitations in clinical practice. Labelled leukocytes, regarded as the gold standard imaging agent, requires first a laborious preparation procedure. Then the requirement for complementary scintigraphic imaging adds a dimension of complexity that may inconvenience patients and also increase the cost of the investigation. However, the development of in vivo leukocyte-labelling methods and the introduction of fusion imaging with anatomical examinations may assist in reducing those limitations and in increasing diagnostic accuracy. (author)