Revival of clinical nuclear medicine brain imaging.

Abstract

The objective of this editorial is to call attention to our present capability to measure or infer regional cerebral blood flow using single-photon tomography in the clinical nuclear medicine department without any extraordinary training or requirements on personnel. The radiopharmaceuticals are available. All that is required is the acquisition of a proper single-photon tomograph for the head. For either the Xe-washout rCBF (absolute) or the static rCBF (relative) approach, the device should involve about 1/4 the cost of a positron tomograph. We can hope that commercial systems will be designed to do what can be done in terms of sensitivity, resolution, uniformity, and reliability.