Infection and Inflammation Imaging

Abstract

AbstractMost commonly infectious processes in children involve the peripheral skeleton, lungs, kidneys, brain, and heart. Pediatric infections are usually of viral and bacterial origins. Fungal etiology can be found, mainly in children with immunodeficiency. Neonates also have immature immunity and are prone to infections with a less favorable prognosis. Conventional techniques used to evaluate infectious and inflammatory processes in children provide high-resolution images but are limited since only insignificant findings are seen in early disease stages and the differential diagnosis with coexisting pathologies and/or post-treatment changes is challenging. Nuclear Medicine procedures play an important role in diagnosing and monitoring pediatric infections, and inflammatory and granulomatous diseases. Several SPECT radiotracers used in the past for functional imaging of infection and inflammatory processes, such as 67Gallium citrate and 111In-labelled WBCs are not being used anymore routinely in pediatric patients and only rarely in adults, mainly in centers with limited or no access to 99mTc-labelled leukocytes (WBCs) and PET imaging. The value of Nuclear Medicine tests has increased with the implementation of hybrid SPECT/CT, PET/CT, and PET/MRI imaging.