ABSTRACT
Background In recent years, nuclear medicine has become strategic in the diagnosis of neuroendocrine tumors, thanks to the good diagnostic performance of somatostatin radiolabeled analogs used for scintigraphic imaging.1-3 Other radiopharmaceuticals are proposed for use in this area. Some precursors of the catecholamine metabolism, such as metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG), find their main indication for tumors of sympathoadrenal lineage, while different peptides with affinities for various receptors have been studied in many experimental clinical trials.4-6
The peculiarity of nuclear medicine imaging is that it allows functional information to be obtained based on the kinetics and biodistribution of particular radiolabeled substances, providing images of cellular structures involved in metabolic processes. In recent years, tremendous technological progress has been obtained in scintigraphic imaging, using both γ cameras and positron emission tomography (PET). One of the most relevant achievements is image fusion using dedicated software and hybrid instrumentation (single photon emission computed tomography-computed tomography (SPECT-CT, PET-CT) that allow the combination of both functional and morphologic information. Nowadays, nuclear medicine diagnostic modalities can be divided into two fields of application, according to the detection technique: (1) scintigraphy with γ emitting radiopharmaceuticals (planar scintigraphy and SPECT) and (2) PET.
