Contribution of positron emission tomography in neurology

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is a scanner technique using tracers labelled with shortlived radioisotopes which allows to study and quantify human metabolic processes or drug pharmacology in vivo. The technique is first applied in physiological studies. Sleep, normal brain metabolism or cerebral activations have been studied. The pharmacological approach concerns both drug distribution in the human brain and blood flow or metabolic variations under treatment. Main neurological applications in pathology are cerebrovascular disorders, diseases leading to dementia, epilepsy, movement disorders, and brain tumors. In each field of application, PET gives unique and frequently early informations. It nicely combines both dynamic informations and measurement precision. (author)