An update on the unparalleled impact of FDG-PET imaging on the day-to-day practice of medicine with emphasis on management of infectious/inflammatory disorders

Excerpt

The concept of FDG-PET imaging was discussed for the first time among three investigators from the University of Pennsylvania, Abass Alavi, David Kuhl, and Martin Reivich, in the early 1970s [1]. These investigators had realized the potential for this novel radiolabeled compound in human research and clinical practice based on autoradiographic imaging studies using 14C-deoxyglucose in animals [1]. This initial discussion led to contacting chemists at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), which soon led to a joint effort to label deoxyglucose with 18F and determine its role by examining brain function in human beings. This investigation was led by Alfred Wolf and his colleagues at BNL and eventually, the compound was successfully synthesized and tested for toxicity before plans were made to image its distribution in human beings [2]. By mid-1976, an investigational new drug (IND) application was secured from the FDA for administering this radiotracer to normal human volunteers. Finally, in August 1976, the compound was shipped by a private plane to Philadelphia and successful images of the whole body by a conventional rectilinear scanner and tomographic images by a SPECT instrument were acquired by Abass Alavi at the University of Pennsylvania [3]. Soon thereafter, research protocols were drafted to determine the patterns of cerebral glucose metabolism with this compound in central nervous system disorders by Penn/BNL and UCLA investigators [4, 5]. The results from these early research studies conducted initially at these institutions and then later by a few other centers in the USA and Europe in the 1980s clearly demonstrated the great promise of FDG for both research and clinical applications. …