title: Adrenocortical Positron Emission Tomography/PET-CT Imaging.
abstract: The frequency for detecting asymptomatic adrenal masses is increasing because of the common use of computed tomography and MR imaging in the practice of medicine. CT and MR imaging have played an important role in defining certain physiologic and pathologic ingredients of the adrenal glands; however, it is sometimes difficult to characterize adrenal masses with CT or MR imaging alone. In such cases, further characterization of the adrenal masses can be achieved using functional imaging modalities. Positron emission tomography (PET) using 18-F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) has performed well in the evaluation and management of various malignant conditions. FDG-PET has also shown excellent results in the evaluation of primary and metastatic malignant adrenal disease with poor differentiation. This article discusses in detail various PET radiopharmaceutics which can be used for adrenocortical imaging.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India. Electronic address: rkphulia@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Rakesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Abass
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alavi
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, S. Orsola-Malpighi Polyclinic, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fanti
keywords: (11)C-etomidate and (11)C-metomidate; Adrenal masses; Adrenocortical imaging; FDG-PET