Gamma camera imaging of inflammatory bowel diseases

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) include Crohn's disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC), heterogeneous diseases characterized by a misfunction of the immune system and a chronic inflammation of bowel, often invalidating and requiring life-long treatment. It is crucial to early diagnose these conditions and to promptly start an appropriate treatment that aims at resolving symptoms and preventing/delaying complications. Diagnosis relies on endoscopic methods, but also imaging by computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Nuclear medicine techniques are not first line diagnostic tools despite they are very sensitive modalities for the evaluation of the state of activity of the disease. To this purpose, specific radiopharmaceuticals have been developed as probes to detect specific molecular antigens, to obtain information on the activity of the disease but also on the nature of the process to tailor treatment and for follow-up. Among the many radiopharmaceuticals available, we will concentrate in particular, on the use of radiolabeled white blood cell scintigraphy.