PET-CT In Tuberculosis: Benefit Outweighs The Expense

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a threat to humans with high mortality, rising incidence of multidrug resistance and HIV co-infection despite the availability of relatively cheap and effective treatment options. TB kills 1.5 million people annually and 9.6 million develop the disease annually1 . It is currently the second highest infective cause of death worldwide, only surpassed by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Positron emission tomography (PET) integrated with computer tomography (CT) provides a unique opportunity to noninvasively image the whole body for diagnosing, assessing disease activity, staging and monitoring therapy response in many infectious and inflammatory diseases. PET/CT can rapidly provide three dimensional views of disease deep within the body. 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) is the commonly used PET tracer with a wide range of application. This tracer has also been used for imaging tuberculosis.18F-FDG PET relies on the glucose uptake of inflammatory cells as a result of the respiratory burst that occurs with infection.

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