The Role of Positron Emission Tomography in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Abstract

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are a group of pathological conditions characterized by chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract, including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. To date, imaging of IBD is based on several radiological techniques such as barium studies, magnetic resonance imaging, and computed tomography (CT). Endoscopy is the gold standard for the assessment of the large bowel and proximal small intestine in patients with IBD allowing the biopsy of the visualized bowel. Positron emission tomography (PET) and PET/CT with Fluorine-18-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) is a functional imaging method used to detect abnormalities in glucose metabolism in a variety of disorders. FDG accumulates mainly in tumours, but increased uptake and retention has been shown also in lesions with a high concentration of inflammatory cells, such as granulocytes and activated macrophages. Recent literature data demonstrate that FDG-PET and PET/CT may be useful noninvasive tools for identifying and localizing active IBD. In patients with an established diagnosis of IBD, FDG-PET and PET/CT may provide information about disease activity, location and extent of the disease within the intestinal tract, allowing early recognition of disease relapse and possible complications. Furthermore, these techniques may play a role in assessing the treatment response to medical therapy in patients with IBD.

Role of PET and SPECT in the Study of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

“…Among all used radiotracers, the most important is still the first among those proposed, namely, the F-18 fluoro-deoxyglucose (FDG), which traces the metabolism of glucose. Currently, being mainly used for oncologic applications [ 12 , 13 ], PET-FDG has a clinical interest also in nonneoplastic pathologies, in particular in inflammatory diseases [ 14 ]. Furthermore, FDG plays an important role also in the evaluation of neurological diseases, first of all in dementia [ 15 ].…”