Dear Molecular Imaging Insider,
The diagnosis of chronic osteomyelitis has long presented a challenge to clinicians. Symptoms can be intermittent, and localizing the infection can bedevil the capabilities of morphological imaging modalities such as radiographs, CT, and MRI.
Outside of the academic environment, PET has mostly been used to stage and manage cancer. Although studies examining the usefulness of the technology for infection and inflammation imaging have been ongoing for more than two decades, FDG-PET has seen only limited clinical use for this purpose.
A recent study from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia may represent a new direction. Researchers from these institutions presented compelling evidence at last month's Society of Nuclear Medicine conference in San Diego that FDG-PET should be considered a first-line modality in the diagnosis of chronic osteomyelitis.
To read more about the use of FDG-PET for determining the presence or absence of chronic osteomyelitis, click here. As a Molecular Imaging Insider subscriber, you can access this story before it's published for the rest of our AuntMinnie members.
In addition, if you haven't done so in a while, be sure to stop in and take a look at our online reference book, Nuclear Medicine on the Internet. Dr. Scott Williams updates this text each month, ensuring that the cutting edge of molecular imaging research and practice are available to our members. Check out his most current postings by clicking here.
Finally, if you'd like to share your suggestions or insights on any aspect of molecular imaging you'd like to see covered on AuntMinnie.com in the future, please send me an e-mail with your thoughts. I look forward to hearing from you.
