Studying the pulmonary circulation with positron emission tomography.

Positron emission tomography and appropriately labeled, short-lived radiopharmaceuticals can be used to study a variety of physiologic processes within the lung. Recently, methods have been developed to measure regional pulmonary blood flow and pulmonary vascular permeability to protein macromolecules. The advantages of these techniques include accurate quantitation, regional data available in an image format, noninvasiveness, and repeatability. These methods have recently been applied to studies of hypoxic vasoconstriction, pulmonary edema, and chronic obstructive lung disease in man and large experimental animals. Although the technology is complex and requires the integration of people from a variety of disciplines, these methods offer a unique opportunity to study in vivo lung physiology.