HB) ISBN-13 978-1-4020-4560-8 (HB) ISBN-10 1-4020-4561-1 (e-book) Published by Springer, All rights reserved. ß 2006 Springer No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.Printed in the Netherlands.
PREFACEFounded in 1971, COST is an intergovernmental framework for European Cooperation in the field of scientific and technical research, allowing the coordination of nationally funded research on a European level. COST actions cover basic and precompetitive research, as well as activities of public utility. The goal of COST is to ensure that Europe holds a strong position in the field of scientific and technical research for peaceful purposes, by increasing European cooperation and interaction.COST consists in actions, the duration of which is generally 4 years. Two actions, COST B3 entitled ''Development of New Radiotracers and Methods of Quality Assurance for Nuclear Medicine Applications'' and COST B12 entitled ''Radiotracers for In Vivo Assessment of Biological Functions'', which have been devoted to radiopharmaceutical chemistry and radiopharmaceutical validation, were successfully completed.Radiochemical methodology constitutes the most important base for successful in vivo functional imaging in nuclear medicine. For single-photon emission tomography (SPET) imaging, radioiodination methodology allows the development of potent radiotracers, and several of them are presently in clinical routine.Many previous publications have tackled the specific problems of radioiodination, but the time for a state-of-the-art book seemed right now since this field has advanced over the last 30 years to reach a level where guidelines and expert systems can be suggested for the main methodological aspects. This book has emerged from an original idea during the course of COST Action B3 and was developed during the course of COST Action B12 with the help of many recognised European experts in the field. Sincere thanks to all of them for their very precious support, advice and contributions.The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of COST, which, all along the duration of the actions, has encouraged the preparation and the finalisation of a collective textbook.