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Amyloid Imaging

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Radiopharmaceuticals

Abstract

Amyloid-imaging agents such as 18F-florbetapir, 18F-flutemetamol, and 18F-florbetaben diffuse across the blood–brain barrier, are taken up in the neuritic plaques, and produce a radioactive signal that is detectable throughout the brain. The highest level of amyloid tracers uptake in the normal brain mostly regards white matter; in the body, they are enhanced in salivary glands, liver, muscles, and bone marrow.

The uptake of amyloid tracers in the gray matter is linked to the deposition of amyloid. Therefore, these tracers are useful for PET and PET/CT imaging of amyloid-related kinds of dementia. In particular, PET with amyloid tracers is useful in evaluating patients with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. Future studies are needed to clarify the potential added value of these radiopharmaceuticals in evaluation of systemic or cardiac amyloidosis.

Diagnostic pitfalls can be due to rapid washout of tracers in the brain, faint uptake in vascular dementia, or motion artifacts in PET/CT fusion imaging.

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Abbreviations

18F-FDG:

18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose

AD:

Alzheimer’s disease

MCI:

Mild cognitive impairment

PET/CT:

Positron emission tomography/computed tomography

SUVR :

Standardized uptake value ratio

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy

    Agostino Chiaravalloti & Orazio Schillaci

  2. Department of Nuclear Medicine and Theranostics, “Mariano Santo” Hospital, Cosenza, Italy

    Ferdinando Calabria & Antonio Bagnato

  3. Department of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, IRCCS Neuromed, Pozzilli, IS, Italy

    Orazio Schillaci

Authors
  1. Agostino Chiaravalloti
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  2. Ferdinando Calabria
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  3. Antonio Bagnato
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  4. Orazio Schillaci
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ferdinando Calabria .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nuclear Medicine and Theranostics, Mariano Santo Hospital, Cosenza, Italy

    Ferdinando Calabria

  2. Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy

    Orazio Schillaci

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Chiaravalloti, A., Calabria, F., Bagnato, A., Schillaci, O. (2020). Amyloid Imaging. In: Calabria, F., Schillaci, O. (eds) Radiopharmaceuticals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27779-6_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27779-6_8

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-27778-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-27779-6

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