Nuclear Medicine Methods

Abstract

Nuclear medicine uses radioactive substances (radiopharmaceuticals, tracers) for the diagnosis but also treatment of several disease entities. These well-established diagnostic medical imaging methods include scintigraphy, single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and positron emission tomography (PET). Newer developments include hybrid scanning techniques such as PET-CT, SPECT-computed tomography (CT), and PET-magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In contrast to the other presented imaging modalities such as ultrasonography (see Chap.2), CT (see Chap. 3), and MRI (see Chap. 4), the data and experience concerning nuclear medicine methods for inherited muscle diseases are limited. There are few other clinical conditions in which particularly PET, in addition to other imaging modalities, might be useful in supporting the clinical diagnosis (e.g., inflammatory muscle diseases) or as a screening and staging tool like (e.g., malignancies). This chapter gives a brief overview of the clinical applications of nuclear medicine methods to (neuro)muscular diseases mainly focusing on PET and scintigraphic methods.