title: Positron emission tomography radiochemistry.
abstract: Factors that place constraints on radio-chemists who are seeking to design and develop radiopharmaceuticals for PET imaging studies include the short half-lives of 11C and 18F, minimum radiochemical yield and specific activity requirements, and high radiation fields that are associated with multi-Curie quantities of PET radionuclides. Nevertheless, during the past 20 years, considerable progress has been made in the development and application of a variety of PET radiotracers for a range of imaging studies in human subjects. We have highlighted a few areas of radiochemistry that focused on PET radiotracers that are described in this issue. Although the number of PET radiotracers synthesized is in the hundreds [6], much work remains to develop specific and useful PET radiotracers for a host of new and exciting noninvasive imaging applications.
authors.affiliation: Positron Emission Tomography Facility, Department of Radiology, University of Pittsburgh, B-938, UPMC Presbyterian, 200 Lothrop Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-2582, USA. masonns@msx.upmc.edu
authors.forename: N Scott
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Mason
authors.forename: Chester A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Mathis
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001923:Brain Chemistry; D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes / Q000737:chemistry; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D007457:Iodine Radioisotopes / Q000737:chemistry; D018787:Radiation Oncology; D011854:Radiochemistry; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals / Q000737:chemistry*; D011950:Receptors, Cholinergic / Q000737:chemistry; D011954:Receptors, Dopamine / Q000737:chemistry; D011963:Receptors, GABA-A / Q000737:chemistry; D017981:Receptors, Neurotransmitter / Q000737:chemistry*; D011957:Receptors, Opioid / Q000737:chemistry; D011985:Receptors, Serotonin / Q000737:chemistry; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed
chemical_list: D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D007457:Iodine Radioisotopes; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D011950:Receptors, Cholinergic; D011954:Receptors, Dopamine; D011963:Receptors, GABA-A; D017981:Receptors, Neurotransmitter; D011957:Receptors, Opioid; D011985:Receptors, Serotonin; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18