PET radiopharmaceuticals for neuroreceptor imaging

Routine clinical PET radiopharmaceuticals for the noninvasive imaging of brain receptors, transporters, and enzymes are commonly labeled with positron emitting nuclides such as carbon-11 or fluorine-18. Certain minimal conditions need to be fulfilled for these PET ligands to be used as imaging agents in vivo. Some of these prerequisites are discussed and examples of the most useful clinical PET radiopharmaceuticals that have found application in the central nervous system are reviewed.