Abstract
Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging provides unique information of the cellular and molecular pathways of disease occurring within the human body, using measurements made from outside the body, which has shown utility in a variety of studies from basic research to clinical applications. This chapter describes some of the most relevant PET system parameters that impact its imaging performance such as 3D spatial, energy, and coincidence timing resolutions and the methodology typically used to evaluate those parameters. In addition, the physical principles underlying PET imaging, PET photon detector technology, and coincidence detection are also described. As a closing remark, the future perspectives of PET imaging and its simultaneous use with anatomical imaging techniques (e.g., computed tomography [CT] and magnetic resonance imaging [MRI]) are outlined.
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Acknowledgments
This work was partially supported by NIH grants R01CA214669 and R01EB025125 and by the VALi+d Program for Researchers in Postdoctoral Phase of the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy (Generalitat de Valencia) and the European Social Fund.
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Gonzalez-Montoro, A., Levin, C.S. (2024). PET System Technology: Theoretical Aspects and Experimental Methodology. In: Witney, T.H., Shuhendler, A.J. (eds) Positron Emission Tomography. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2729. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3499-8_20
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