Kumar Sudhir, Rajshekher G, Prabhakar Subhashini
Department of Neurological Sciences, Apollo Hospitals, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, India.
Neurol India. 2005 Jun;53(2):149-55. doi: 10.4103/0028-3886.16395.
Positron emission tomography (PET) is the study of human physiology by electronic detection of positron-emitting radiopharmaceuticals. It is one of the noninvasive technologies that can measure the metabolic and functional activity of living tissue. Positron emission tomography finds its clinical applications in broadly three specialties--oncology, cardiology, and neurology. The current review focuses on its indications in neurological diseases. Recently published literature on the use of PET in neurology has been thoroughly analyzed. Several reports regarding the usage of PET in epilepsy, stroke, dementia, and movement disorders are available. Positron emission tomography does not appear to be useful as a primary or sole imaging technique in these conditions. On the other hand, it is useful in very specific situations, which have been elaborated in the review. It is also noteworthy that PET is complementary to the computed tomography/magnetic resonance imaging findings and data obtained from combining these modalities can be valuable in situations such as localization of the epileptogenic focus in cases of refractory epilepsy or for prediction of the outcome after thrombolysis in acute ischemic stroke. The major handicaps in widespread use of PET appear to be its lack of availability and its relatively high cost. Nevertheless, a review such as this would be helpful in judiciously selecting those patients who would benefit from undergoing a PET scan, at a time when PET imaging facility is likely to be available soon in the Indian private sector.
正电子发射断层扫描（PET）是通过电子检测发射正电子的放射性药物来研究人体生理学的技术。它是能够测量活组织代谢和功能活动的非侵入性技术之一。正电子发射断层扫描在肿瘤学、心脏病学和神经病学这三大专业领域有临床应用。本综述重点关注其在神经系统疾病中的应用指征。对近期发表的关于PET在神经病学中应用的文献进行了全面分析。有几篇关于PET在癫痫、中风、痴呆和运动障碍方面应用的报告。在这些情况下，正电子发射断层扫描似乎不作为主要或唯一的成像技术使用。另一方面，它在非常特殊的情况下有用，本综述对此进行了详细阐述。同样值得注意的是，PET与计算机断层扫描/磁共振成像结果互补，将这些检查方法结合获得的数据在某些情况下可能很有价值，比如在难治性癫痫病例中确定致痫灶的位置，或在急性缺血性中风溶栓后预测预后。PET广泛应用的主要障碍似乎是其可用性不足以及成本相对较高。然而，在印度私营部门可能很快就会有PET成像设备的时候，这样一篇综述将有助于明智地选择那些能从PET扫描中受益的患者。
