Abstract
This chapter provides an introduction to nuclear medicine technique useful for evaluating head and neck endocrine diseases. Different radiotracers can be used for thyroid imaging and they can be classified in two groups: a) radiotracers describing the function of follicular cells and b) radiotracers mapping the proliferative activity of follicular cells. The first group includes technetium-99m-pertechnetate (99mTcO4–) and radioiodine; the second group includes Tc99m-methoxyisobutylisonitrile (99mTc-MIBI) and fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG).
About parathyroid nuclear imaging, 99mTc-MIBI is the most used tracer in clinical practice, usually combined with a thyroid tracer. Planar and tomographic images can be used for detecting hyperfunctioning parathyroid glands. The role of PET tracers seems promising.
Lastly, several tracers evaluating different metabolic pathways can be used to detect neuroendocrine tumors of head and neck region.
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Ceriani, L., Treglia, G., Giovanella, L. (2016). Nuclear Medicine Techniques. In: Giovanella, L., Treglia, G., Valcavi, R. (eds) Atlas of Head and Neck Endocrine Disorders. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22276-9_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22276-9_2
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