Currently Available Radiopharmaceuticals for Imaging Infection and the Holy Grail

Infection is ubiquitous. However, its management is challenging for both the patients and the health-care providers. Scintigraphic imaging of infection dates back nearly half a century. The advances in our understanding of the pathophysiology of disease at cellular and molecular levels have paved the way to the development of a large number of radiopharmaceuticals for scintigraphic imaging of infection. These include radiolabeling of blood elements such as serum proteins, white blood cells (WBCs), and cytokines, to name a few. Infectious foci have also been imaged using a radiolabeled sugar molecule by taking advantage of increased metabolic activity in the infectious lesions. Literature over the years has well documented that none of the radiopharmaceuticals and associated procedures that facilitate imaging infection are flawless and acceptable without a compromise. As a result, only a few compounds such as 99mTc-hexamethylpropyleneamineoxime, 18F-FDG, the oldest but still considered as a gold standard 111In-oxine, and, yes, even 67Ga-citrate in some countries, have remained in routine clinical practice. Nonetheless, the interest of scientists and physicians to improve the approaches to imaging and to the management of infection is noteworthy. These approaches have paved the way for the development of numerous, innovative radiopharmaceuticals to label autologous WBCs ex vivo or even those that could be injected directly to image infection or inflammation without direct involvement of WBCs. In this review, we briefly describe these agents with their pros and cons and place them together for future reference.