2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-D-glucose and alternative radiotracers for positron emission tomography imaging using the human brain as a model.

2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-D-glucose (18FDG) is now routinely available in many hospitals and other institutions either via on-site production or from one of the dozens of regional radiopharmacies worldwide. Its reliable production has opened the possibility for use in both basic and clinical investigations and also in pairing it with other more biologically specific positron emission tomography tracers to provide an important functional perspective to the measurement. In this article, we highlight examples in which 18FDG is paired with another carbon-11- or fluorine-18-labeled radiotracer in the same subject to correlate neurotransmitter-specific effects with regional metabolic effects using the human brain as a model. We describe studies that fall into three major areas: normal aging, neuropsychiatric disorders, and drug action.