PET-Based Personalized Management of Infectious and Inflammatory Disorders

Abstract

It is challenging to diagnose and manage infectious and inflammatory diseases; symptoms are relatively nonspecific, the disease patterns are often systemic. Imaging is pivotal and fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-PET/computed tomography (CT) is increasingly used due to its high sensitivity whole-body approach. At present, the literature is still relatively sparse, but evidence for FDG-PET/CT is mounting in several domains, for example, detecting culprit lesions in systemic infections and inflammations, evaluation of disease extent and therapy monitoring, and many other domains have shown considerable potential, for example, atherosclerosis in systemic inflammation. We believe FDG-PET/CT is becoming a first-line modality for infections and inflammation.

Keywords: FDG; Infection; Infectious disease; Inflammation; Inflammatory disorders; PET/CT.