[Use of the positron emitter in functional and metabolic lung studies]

Positron emission tomography (PET), a new technique, uses positrons which, immediately after emission, combine with electrons and annihilate to produce pairs of 511 KeV photons. Commonly used positron emitters (C-11, N-13, O-15) are important constituents of biologic metabolism. However, because of their short half-life characteristics, the on-side cyclotron facility is required for their use. To date, there is not much experience with PET in lung diseases. In this paper brief information about PET application in pulmonary blood flow measurements, ventilation measurement, central chemical control of ventilation and lung metabolic studies, is presented.