Peter H. Cox - Böcker

In the past nuclear medicine has tended to develop in cycles governed by the development of new radiopharmaceuticals followed or preceded by advances in instrumentation. The development of alternative techniques, such as X-Ray Computer Tomography, NMR Imaging and Ultrasound have also had a stimulating effect and pointed the way to new developments. The development of Positron Emission Tomography, while in itself of limited application because of high costs involved, provided a great deal of information which led to the development of new organ or disease specific, single photon emitting radiopharmaceuticals together with tomographic Gamma cameras, whereby detailed information on the biodistribution of the reagents could be obtained with accurate spatial resolution presented in a form suitable for comparison with the other imaging modalities. This technology, known as Single Photon Emission (Computer) Tomography (SPECT or SPET) is now an essential tool in nuclear medicine. The volume presents a basic guideline to the technology involved and discusses the application of the method to the investigation of various anatomical regions of the body.The book is an aide memoire to the routine practitioner and a source of information for other medical specialists.

This publication contains a collection of 22 manuscripts by authors invited to write review articles. They are based on lectures presented on the First and Second Training Course in Radiopharmacy and Radiopharmacology. These courses were organized under the auspices of the "Joint Committee on Radiopharmaceuticals" of both European Societies of Nuclear Medicine (ENMS and SNME) and were sponsored by the European Society of Nuclear Medicine (ENMS). Recent developments in radiopharmacy and radiopharmacology have been very complex; they cannot be overlooked by the medical staff in nuclear medical departments. This book has been written to provide access to recent research and to practical daily routine in patients' investigations. It provides a wide-ranging and topical overview of radiopharmacology in- cluding chapters on basic chemistry and physics, incorporation dosimetry, interference of drugs in radiopharmacokinetics, legal aspects and stable isotope-labelled pharmaceuticals. Style of presentation is not uniform. Par- tial overlapping concerning the content of papers has not been avoided in order to ensure different views and aspects of the same subject.We hope that the interdisciplinary approach will be stimulating and thought-provok- ing for the reader. Consequently, this book is designed for specialists work- ing in nuclear medical centres which involve different disciplines such as pharmacists, radiochemists, physicists, biochemists, biologists, mathemati- cians, electronic engineers, physicians with different specialities, and tech- nicians.