Subject(s)
Cardiology/methods , Nuclear Medicine/methods , COVID-19/epidemiology , Computed Tomography Angiography , Coronary Artery Disease/diagnostic imaging , Delivery of Health Care/organization & administration , Humans , Internationality , Physical Distancing , Positron-Emission Tomography , Societies, Medical , Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-PhotonABSTRACT
Increased mortality rates from infectious diseases is a growing public health concern. Successful management of acute bacterial infections requires early diagnosis and treatment, which are not always easy to achieve. Structural imaging techniques such as CT and MRI are often applied to this problem. However, these methods generally rely on secondary inflammatory changes and are frequently not specific to infection. The use of nuclear medicine techniques can add crucial complementary information, allowing visualization of infectious pathophysiology beyond morphologic imaging. This review will discuss the current structural and functional imaging techniques used for the diagnosis of bacterial infection and their roles in different clinical scenarios. We will also present several new radiotracers in development, with an emphasis on probes targeting bacteria-specific metabolism. As highlighted by the current coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic, caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, similar thinking may apply in imaging viral pathogens; for this case, prominent effects on host proteins, most notably angiotensin-converting enzyme 2, might also provide worthwhile imaging targets.
Subject(s)
Bacterial Infections/diagnostic imaging , Diagnostic Imaging/methods , Nuclear Medicine/methods , Animals , Bacterial Infections/drug therapy , HumansSubject(s)
COVID-19/epidemiology , Cardiology/methods , Laboratories , Nuclear Medicine/methods , Pandemics , Practice Guidelines as Topic , Societies, Medical , Humans , Risk , SafetyABSTRACT
The current outbreak of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has reached multiple countries worldwide. While the number of newly diagnosed cases and fatalities is rising quickly, far-reaching measures were enacted to prevent further spread. Diagnosis relies on clinical presentation, exposure history, PCR using specimens from the respiratory tract together with computed tomography (CT) imaging. One of the hallmarks of a critical course of COVID-19 is the development of severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). As management of COVID-19 can be considered a multi-disciplinary approach involving various medical specialties, we here review the first 18F-FDG-PET/CT scans of COVID-19 to discuss how Nuclear Medicine could contribute to management of this disease.
Subject(s)
Coronavirus Infections/diagnostic imaging , Fluorodeoxyglucose F18/pharmacology , Nuclear Medicine/methods , Pneumonia, Viral/diagnostic imaging , Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography , Respiratory Distress Syndrome/diagnostic imaging , Betacoronavirus , COVID-19 , Disease Outbreaks , Female , Humans , Interdisciplinary Communication , Male , Middle Aged , Nuclear Medicine/trends , Pandemics , Polymerase Chain Reaction , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
In the global pandemic COVID-19, it is important for everyone including nuclear medicine personnel to know how to stop transmission and contain and prevent the spread of COVID-19. Here, we summarize our American College of Nuclear Medicine members' experiences from Wuhan, China; Singapore; and the USA, so to provide advice to the nuclear medicine personnel for their clinical practice and management strategies in responding to COVID-19.