This book is a first edition and is born from the collaboration of leading Asian experts in the field of Diagnostic Imaging. In particular, Hiroshi Toyama, working at the Fujita Health University in Toyoake, Jun Hatazawa, Professor Emeritus, still active at the Osaka University in Suita, and Kazuo Kubota, operative at the Southern TOHOKU General Hospital Koriyama in Fukushima, are all from Japan. Together with them, the publication is edited by Yaming Li, from the First Hospital of China Medical University Shenyang in Liaoning, and Guang Huang, from the Shanghai University of Medicine & Health Sciences in Shanghai, both working in China.

The publication, consisting of 233 pages enriched with 179 illustrations, 146 of which in color, is structured in the following 8 chapters: (1) Basic Science of PET Imaging for Inflammatory Diseases; (2) FDG-PET/CT in Patients with Inflammation or Fever of Unknown Origin (IUO and FUO); (3) FDG-PET/CT for a Variety of Infectious Diseases; (4) Hematological Diseases Mimic Inflammation; (5) FDG-PET/CT for Large-Vessel Vasculitis; (6) FDG PET/CT for Rheumatic Diseases (Collagen Diseases); (7) FDG PET/CT for Sarcoidosis; (8) PET/CT for Neuroinflammation.

Given the great interest in inflammatory diseases for the role of hybrid imaging, in particular for FDG-PET/CT, the book offers a combination of clinical aspects and nuclear imaging fundamentals for decision-making in the clinical practice. Of particular interest is the first chapter, in which physio-pathological and molecular mechanisms of inflammation are described, giving a specific relevance to the neuro-inflammatory damage. The structure of the following chapters, providing a systematic approach to the FDG PET/CT role in the diagnosis of various pathologies, is organized through a collection of richly illustrated didactic cases, including key images and their interpretation, techniques, and diagnosis, which describe mainly the most commonly observed scintigraphic patterns. Each chapter is complemented by a review of the recent literature.

The usefulness of the book may be found mainly in stimulating a greater diffusion of nuclear medical methods, and in particular of FDG-PET/CT, outside the oncological field. It is evident from the reading of this book the importance that could have an ever greater dissemination of these procedures in this field. For these reasons, in addition to professionals and residents in Diagnostic Imaging, this volume can be of great interest to clinicians who have in their daily experience the diagnosis and treatment of inflammatory diseases.