PET in neurological and psychiatric disorders: Technologic advances and clinical applications

Abstract

This chapter resumes applications of PET in neurological and psychiatric disease and research. Routine applications and recent developments in [18F]FDG-PET are dealt with, followed by the role of amyloid PET as inclusion parameter in clinical trials. A large series of PET tracers do target neurotransmitter signaling at various steps. This serves as a tool to decipher the pathophysiology of disease as well as to conduct pharmacokinetic and dose-finding studies of new drug candidates. After presenting the different types of experimental approaches, an overview of targets is given that had been imaged thus far by PET in the human brain. Taken together, PET imaging always accompanied and catalyzed the emergence of new technologies - may it be deep brain stimulation or new biomarkers - at the threshold to routine.