

Positron emitting short half-life nuclides (, , and ) were introduced in nuclear medicine in the late 1960's and used to study functional imaging with labeled biological organic compounds. At present, the most commonly used single photon emitting nuclides are, ,, ,, and. The development of the single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) in the 1980's led to the wide use of - radiopharmaceuticals. In the 1960's -1970's, (daughter of ) with the gamma camera was introduced as a practical method for nuclear medicine and was applied in various chemical forms to visualize organ degeneration in the body.

In the 1950's, the nuclides, and were used for diagnosis and treatment of diseases in nuclear medicine. In the 40's, several radionuclides were tried for animal and human behavior research. These properties make them useful for in-vitro radioimmunoassay and in-vivo imaging in Nuclear Medicine. The radioactive nuclides used for radiopharmaceuticals are detected with very high sensitivity and are suitable as in-vivo biomarkers tracers. Palabras claves: tomografía computarizada con positrón, radiofármacos, radioterapia, tomografía de emisión computarizada de fotón único, funciones biológicas, moléculas, imágenes. En el momento actual los trabajos principales están enfocados a la imagen de proteínas tau para el diagnóstico de la enfermedad de Alzheimer y las imágenes de inflamaciones. El tercer hito es el desarrollo del concepto teragnóstico de los radiofármacos. El segundo hito lo constituye el establecimiento del método de imagen molecular en la medicina nuclear. Este es el primer hito del desarrollo de radiofármacos PET. Este mecanismo es un concepto nuevo para la obtención de imágenes funcionales lo que permite realizar el monitoreo de los procesos terapéuticos.

En la actualidad, el 18FDG tiene amplia utilización en el diagnóstico de tumores mediante el mecanismo de captura metabólica. En 1976, el descubrimiento de 18FDG, con el desarrollo de un equipo de imagenología positrónica, facilitó la obtención de imágenes del cerebro humano mediante la aplicación de la tecnología PET. Los núclidos emisores de positrones fueron tratados en 1940 como radiotrazadores in vivo en el campo de las investigaciones biomédicas. Key words: positron computed tomography, radiopharmaceuticals, radiotherapy, single photon emission computed tomography, biological functions, molecules, images. At present highlight works are focused in tau protein imaging for Alzheimer disease diagnosis and inflammation imaging. The second milestone is the establishment of a molecular imaging method in nuclear medicine and third, is the development of the theragnostic concept of radiopharmaceuticals. This is first milestone of PET radiopharmaceutical development. Today, 18FDG is widely used in tumour diagnosis by a metabolic trapping mechanism, which is a new concept for functional imaging and makes possible the monitoring of the therapy process. In 1976, the discovery of 18FDG with the developing of a positron imaging device, allowed to obtain the image of the human brain by PET technology. Hitos en el desarrollo de los radiofármacos PETġ Theragnostic Compound R&D Center, Neuroscience Research Institute, Gachon University, Incheon, South Korea Tohoku University, Sendai, JapanĢ Centro de Aplicaciones Tecnológicas y Desarrollo Nuclear, (Ceaden), positron emitting nuclides were already tried in 1940's as in vivo radio-tracers in the research field of medical biology. The mile-stone of PET radiopharmaceuticals development
