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PET
PET is a non-invasive medical imaging technology which provides a unique window on the physiology and function of living organisms. It uses short-lived positron emitting isotopes to trace labelled compounds in vivo forming stable covalent bonds to carbon and thus have identical properties to the parent drug.
A Positron Emission Tomograph allows an accurate quantification of the distribution of radioactivity in the body and offers possibilities to study physiology, molecular biology, energy metabolism, drug-receptor or drug-enzyme interactions and the fates of radiotracers in living tissues. In addition, modifications of the biodistribution in physiological or pathological conditions can also be measured.
Among the available radioisotopes, fluorine-18 is the nuclide of choice: it has a longer half-life (110 min) and a positron energy lower than the other commonly used (for example carbon-11 (t1/2: 20 min). This makes fluorine-18 very attractive in terms of synthesis time, biological studies and resolutions of PET scans.
