Radiation Detection in SPECT and PET

Abstract

Nuclear medicine imaging consists of planar scintigraphy (2D gamma-ray projection imaging) and emission computed tomography (ECT) (or 3D tomographic imaging). ECT includes two modalities: single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET). The field of nuclear medicine, in general, consists of imaging physics and instrumentation, radiopharmaceutical sciences and radiotracer methodologies, image processing, reconstruction, and quantitative analysis, physiological modeling and kinetic analysis, and applications to biomedical research and clinical practice. In this broad spectrum of interdisciplinary fields related to nuclear medicine, this chapter focuses on radiation detection in SPECT and PET. Major historic developments are briefly reviewed first. Current state-of-the-art technologies in radiation detection routinely used in clinical applications are then discussed. Some of the recent advances in radiation detectors and detection techniques associated with PET and SPECT are surveyed. Finally, future trends and directions in adapting novel radiation detection technologies in nuclear medicine, especially in PET and SPECT, are projected and delineated.