What is a pet scan used for?

Cancer usually: The most common illnesses studied are various types of cancer. Frontal temporal lobe dementia can be differentiated from alzheimers disease from lewy body dementia also.

Approved for cancer: Pet scan are approved for staging, response assessment and surveillance of certain types of cancers. However, any pathologic process that augments the consumption of glucose (such as infection or inflammation) can be evaluated, though these indications are not currently covered. In addition, pet scans are used to evaluate for brain cognitive disorder, heart ischemia and myocardial viability.

Usually cancer: A pet/ct scan is usually used to image glucose metabolism in people with cancer to identify the extent of the cancer. It can also be used to image the heart for cardiac evaluation. In addition, the pet bone scan can be used to image calcium metabolism which can be altered in many disease, most prominently bony metastatic cancer.

Pet..: The most common Pet scan use is for oncologic reasons however it can be used for many applications. FDG (labeled glucose) is the most common tracer and glucose metabolism can be measured which can be increased in inflammatory, infectious, or malignant conditions. Pet can also be used to evaluate the heart for ischemia or brain for dementia.