Nuclear medicine imaging in infection and inflammation.

Radioactive agents currently available for imaging infection by gamma scintigraphy do so by identifying inflammation in response to the infection, and are therefore non-specific in so far as they are unable to distinguish between infective and non-infective inflammation. The term ‘infection imaging’ is therefore generally synonymous with ‘inflammation imaging’. This article will briefly review inflammation imaging, beginning with the functional properties of the agents and followed by a description of clinical circumstances in which radionuclide imaging of inflammation may be helpful. R adioactive agents