Fluorine-18 and medical imaging: Radiopharmaceuticals for positron emission tomography

Fluorine presents among its radioactive isotopes fluorine-18, that decays with a 109 min half-life and a beta(+) emission, allowing external detection of the two coincident gamma photons obtained after annihilation. Production techniques (medical cyclotron), radiochemical reactions for isotope incorporation in radiopharmaceuticals and development of specific detection cameras (positron emission tomographs) allowed development of a vast investigation field in medical imaging. Applications of PET in oncology ([F-18]fluorodeoxyglucose, FDG) largely improved detection and management of cancers; tracer molecules labelled with fluorine-18 also allow fruitful researches in molecular imaging. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.