Antibiotic resistance, which is a growing public health concern linked to overuse of antibiotics, results in about 700,000 deaths annually and could escalate to 9.5 million if resistance rises by 40%. Current imaging modalities like MRI and CT struggle with low sensitivity and specificity for bacterial infections. Nuclear medicine, especially using technetium-99m (99mTc) offers better solutions. The widespread use of 99mTc is due to its practical generation from 99Mo and its availability. Radiolabeled antibiotics like
99mTc-ciprofloxacin, initially labeled with formamidine sulfuric acid (FSA) and later with stannous ion for stability, are effective for infection imaging, with 99mTc-ciprofloxacin marketed as "Infecton®".
