The Imaging of Infection and Inflammation

Despite 50 years of antibiotics, infection remains a major source of both morbidity and mortality. Immunosuppression, either secondary to drugs in transplant recipients or secondary to HIV, has expanded the number of microorganisms that are known to be pathogenic in man. Imaging of infection has a vital role both in the initial diagnosis and in the continuing management of patients with infection or suspected infection. Functional imaging using nuclear medicine techniques has a unique role to play in identifying sites of infection in a wide range of patients with varying clinical conditions. This book, written by a series of experts not just in the fields of nuclear medicine but also infectious disease and radiology, discusses the role of nuclear medicine in three parts: a review of the pathophysiology of infection; a technical description of those nuclear medicine techniques which can be used in imaging infection; an extensive systematic review including thoracic, abdominal and orthopaedic infection as well as a special section on the acutely ill patient, the immunosuppressed patient and the patient with pyrexia of unknown origin. This book will be of interest to all clinicians looking after patients with infection and who need to use imaging techniques. It will also be of use to radiologists and nuclear medicine physicians who will be using these techniques clinically.