Abstract
PET-CT is Positron Emission Tomography and Computed Tomography. This has become an important imaging modality for the diagnosis of the diseases to evaluate the metabolic and biological activities at the cellular level. There are many pathologies with blend of the pathological processes which need to be evaluated in the early stages. Most of the available imaging modalities are anatomic modalities with no information regarding the metabolic changes or functional parameters in that particular pathology can be identified. PET-CT is an excellent imaging modality that has the blend of the anatomic information from the CT and metabolic information from the PET. This combined imaging modality provided information about these two components at one go. The basic physics of PET is based on the basics of electron, which combines and interacts with the positron by the Annihilation process producing Annihilation proton of 511 keV in the opposite direction of 180°. The PET is based on quantitative imaging where the image is formed by each voxel depending on the amount of radioactive tracer in that particular region. Here the function is also based on the sensor technology of the PET detectors, which has changed since the advent of the initial PET-CT scanners. The radiotracers are produced in a cyclotron which is an important component of radiotracer productions. In this chapter, we will be discussing the basic principles, physics, and techniques of the PET-CT imaging.
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Shaikh, S. (2021). PET-CT Physics, Instrumentation, and Techniques. In: PET-CT in Infection and Inflammation. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9801-2_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9801-2_2
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