Inflammation is involved in a number of medical conditions, and imaging-based diagnosis is frequently used for timely identification and localization of inflammatory foci. Inflammation is closely related to infection, and it is necessary to take inflammation into account in the imaging process of infection. Conventional imaging techniques (computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and ultrasound) may detect such pathology but mainly rely on anatomical changes and are not fully capable of discriminating active inflammatory pathology from the anatomical changes resulting from prior successful therapy or surgery. In addition, inflammatory foci cannot be detected in the early phase of development because of the lack of substantial anatomical changes at this time. Nuclear imaging with radiotracers that accumulate at the site of inflammation has become an established tool in the evaluation of several inflammatory and infectious conditions. They can reveal molecular and cellular changes and provide sensitive detection of even small inflammatory and/or infectious foci at an early stage of disease.
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