This publication contains a collection of 22 manuscripts by authors invited to write review articles. They are based on lectures presented on the First and Second Training Course in Radiopharmacy and Radiopharmacology. These courses were organized under the auspices of the "Joint Committee on Radiopharmaceuticals" of both European Societies of Nuclear Medicine (ENMS and SNME) and were sponsored by the European Society of Nuclear Medicine (ENMS). Recent developments in radiopharmacy and radiopharmacology have been very complex; they cannot be overlooked by the medical staff in nuclear medical departments. This book has been written to provide access to recent research and to practical daily routine in patients' investigations. It provides a wide-ranging and topical overview of radiopharmacology in- cluding chapters on basic chemistry and physics, incorporation dosimetry, interference of drugs in radiopharmacokinetics, legal aspects and stable isotope-labelled pharmaceuticals. Style of presentation is not uniform. Par- tial overlapping concerning the content of papers has not been avoided in order to ensure different views and aspects of the same subject.
We hope that the interdisciplinary approach will be stimulating and thought-provok- ing for the reader. Consequently, this book is designed for specialists work- ing in nuclear medical centres which involve different disciplines such as pharmacists, radiochemists, physicists, biochemists, biologists, mathemati- cians, electronic engineers, physicians with different specialities, and tech- nicians.