Kirsten Bouchelouche,May 2016

The Department of Nuclear Medicine & PET Centre

The Department of Nuclear Medicine & PET Centre is a core facility for imaging of nephro-urology diseases including cancer, and the aim is to provide state-of-the-art diagnostic services to patients.
Focusing on a multidisciplinary approach to patient care and research, we have excellent collaboration with the clinical departments within urology,nephrology, paediatrics and oncology at Aarhus University Hospital.
For the past many years we have performed multiple  ^99mTc-bone scans (planar and SPECT/CT), MAG3 and DTPA renographies, DMSA scintigraphies, renal GFR examinations, sentinel node scintigraphies, and in recent years ¹⁸F-choline PET/CT examinations.
In 2016, ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET/CT was implemented in clinical routine, as we believe that PSMA PET/CT is better than choline PET/CT in prostate cancer.

Radioactive tracers

In our department we have two cyclotrons and a highly specialized radiochemistry laboratory making it possible to work with both established and up-front PET-agents and methods. We perform ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT for clinical staging and evaluation of high risk bladder cancer and penile cancer; in prostate cancer we use ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET/CT.
Other tracers used in prostate research  include ⁸²Rb-PET, ¹⁵O-water PET, and ¹¹C-Donepezil PET;in renal studies we use ¹¹C-metformine and ¹⁵O-water.
Furthermore, we perform preclinical PET studies with rats and pigs in nephro-urology research settings.

Research

The aim of our urology research is to develop, advance and evaluate new and established nuclear molecular imaging methods to  optimize and improve the diagnosis, management and clinical outcome of  patients. The studies are carried out together with basic scientists, dedicated radiochemists and physicists, experienced specialized clinical scientists and other professionals.

Collaborators

Our department has published several clinical trials in collaboration with department of urology,Nephrology, paediatrics and oncology at Aarhus University Hospital and several nephro-urology research activities are ongoing.