NUCLEAR MEDICINE COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY PHYSICS

Course overview

INTERDISCIPLINARY IMAGING HAS SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVED PATIENT CARE. IN NUCLEAR MEDICINE, COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY (CT) IS USED WITH SINGLE-PHOTON EMISSION COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY (SPECT) AND POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY (PET) TO IMPROVE THE QUANTIFICATION OF FUNCTIONAL IMAGING BY CORRECTING FOR ATTENUATION, SCATTER, AND PARTIAL VOLUME EFFECTS AND COMBINEDLY CALLED SPECT-CT AND PET-CT RESPECTIVELY. THIS ARTICLE COVERS THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS OF CT, SPECT, AND PET, THEIR PHYSICS, THE CONCEPT OF HYBRID IMAGING, AND THE BENEFITS AS WELL AS LIMITATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH DUAL IMAGING. VARIOUS TERMS USED IN CT IMAGING, SUCH AS SLIP-RING TECHNOLOGY, HELICAL AND SPIRAL CTS, PITCH, MULTIPLE-DETECTOR CT TECHNOLOGY, X-RAY PRODUCTION, CT DETECTORS, AND HOUNSFIELD UNIT, ARE DISCUSSED IN DETAIL WITH ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGES AND EXAMPLES. THIS ACTIVITY HIGHLIGHTS THE TENETS OF PET, INCLUDING SENSITIVITY, SPATIAL RESOLUTION, SCATTER AND RANDOM EVENTS, ATTENUATION, AND THEIR CORRECTIONS.