Nuclear Imaging

Note the high uptake of Ga-68-pentixafor on multi-planar reconstructions in the organs expressing CXCR4 such as the spleen (red arrows) and adrenal glands (yellow arrows), which was nearly completely blocked by the pre-injection of AMD 3100, a potent CXCR4 inhibitor. Strong accumulation of Ga-68-pentixafor was also found in the kidneys (asterisks) reflecting the renal clearance of the tracer. In addition, high, focal activities were detected in the abdominal aorta (red arrowheads) and right carotid artery (orange arrowheads) of atherosclerotic rabbits, whereas no significant signal could be detected in the non-injured left carotid artery (white arrowheads) of atherosclerotic and control rabbits, as well as in the abdominal aorta and right carotid artery of control rabbits. Furthermore, focal activities detected with PET in atherosclerotic plaques of the abdominal aorta and the right carotid artery decreased significantly when the same rabbit was re-imaged after blocking CXCR4 receptors. Image courtesy of Fabien Hyafil, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Nuclear Medicine, Klinikum Rechts der Isar, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany

Representative brain SPECT scans in a patient with Alzheimer's dementia showing substantially reduced brain blood flow in the temporal and parietal lobes compared to a person with depression with mild decreased frontal lobe blood flow. Image courtesy of Amen Clinics.

Ga-68-BBN PET/CT of a 64-year-old man newly diagnosed with prostate cancer by biopsy. Multiple bone metastasis lesions (arrows) were detected. Image courtesy of Jingjing Zhang, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.

SPECT/CT reconstructions and VOIs used for determination of calibration factors for the adult kidney filled with Lu-177 (A) and the corresponding sphere filled with I-131 (B). Credit: University of Würzburg