PET and radiopharmaceuticals in PAH

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is a common tool used in nuclear medicine imaging and has gained immense popularity among health professionals over the years. Two of the most commonly employed radiopharmaceuticals for this purpose include [¹¹C] Acetate and [¹⁸F] Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG). Out of these two, [¹¹C] Acetate has been employed mostly in cardiology to study oxygen metabolism in myocardial muscles and myocardial perfusion studies, and, [¹⁸F] Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) has a wide spectrum of applications including oncology, infection, inflammation, blood-brain perfusion scans, epilepsy and so on. Recently, scientists have started examining patients with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) and rating their improvements in response to drugs as a measure of cardiac metabolism and imaging studies, comparing patients with PAH and right ventricular dysfunction and those with PAH but without right ventricular dysfunction. Read more.