Letter from the Editors

Article Outline

• Copyright

Evaluation of the brain with radionuclide methodology originated in the 1940s when Moore, Selverstone and others used tracers including I-131 diiodofluoroscein and P-32 for intraoperative localization of brain tumors with probe detectors. In 1952, Peyton, Moore, and coworkers successfully utilized human serum albumin labeled with I-131 to localize intracranial tumors with an external probe detector. The first positron emission tomography images of brain tumors were produced by Gordon Brownell at MIT in 1953 with paired scintillation detectors developed to study As-74 and Cu-64 uptake.

When Cassen's first reliable rectilinear scanner became available in the late 1950s, Bender and Blau used Hg-203 chlormerodrin to image intracranial lesions that altered blood-brain barrier permeability. Sodee introduced the shorter half-lived Hg-197 labeled to chlormerodrin in 1963. This became the brain imaging agent of choice until Harpers introduction of Tc-99m pertechnetate in 1964. Tc-99m was an ideal agent for Anger scintillation camera imaging and for the past 4 decades this instrument has dominated as the cornerstone of everyday nuclear medicine imaging practice throughout the world.

The first issue of Seminars in Nuclear Medicine, which appeared in January 1971, was devoted to “Radionuclide Studies of the Central Nervous System” in recognition of its great importance at that time. The cover of that issue is reproduced at the end of this editorial (Fig. 1). A quick comparison with the current table of contents dramatically underscores the significant progress that has been made in neuronuclear diagnosis. In the guest editorial that follows, Dr. Dan Silverman comments on the contents of the individual articles in this issue and points out the many diverse metabolic processes that we are now able to monitor in studying brain function. These reviews deal not only with the present, but also provide some likely future roles of nuclear brain imaging in diseases such as neuropsychiatric disorders. Dr. Silverman has done a superb job in recruiting these important articles and outstanding authors for which we are most grateful.

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• Figure 1. 

  Cover of the inaugural issue of Seminars in Nuclear Medicine, Volume 1, Number 1, January 1971.