Role of Total Body PET/CT in Inflammatory Disorders

Inflammatory disorders historically have been difficult to monitor with conventional PET imaging due to limitations including radiation exposure, lack of validated imaging biomarkers, low spatial resolution, and long acquisition durations. However, the recent development of long-axial field-of-view (LAFOV) PET/CT scanners may allow utilization of novel noninvasive biomarkers to diagnose, predict outcomes, and monitor therapeutic response of inflammatory conditions. LAFOV PET scanners can image most of the human body (if not the entire body) simultaneously in one bed position, with improved signal collection efficiency compared to conventional PET scanners. This allows for imaging with shorter acquisition durations, decreased injected radiotracer dose, prolonged uptake times, or a combination of any of these. In addition, LAFOV PET scanners enable whole-body dynamic imaging. Altogether, these intrinsically superior capabilities in assessing both local and systemic diseases, have allowed these scanners to make increasingly significant contributions to the assessment of inflammatory conditions. This review aims to further explore the role and benefits of LAFOV scanners for imaging various inflammatory conditions while addressing future developments and challenges faced by this technology.