Abstract
This chapter will present an overview of two radiation-based medical imaging techniques using radiopharmaceuticals used in nuclear medicine/molecular imaging, namely, single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET). The relative merits in terms of radiation sensitivity and image resolution of SPECT and PET will be compared to the main conventional radiologic modalities that are computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. Differences in terms of temporal resolution will also be outlined, as well as the other similarities and dissimilarities of these two techniques, including their latest and upcoming multimodality combination. The main clinical applications are briefly described, and examples of specific SPECT and PET radiopharmaceuticals are listed. SPECT and PET imaging will be then further detailed in the two subsequent chapters describing in greater depth the basics and future trends of each technique (see chapters “SPECT Imaging: Basics and New Trends,” and “PET Imaging: Basics and New Trends”).
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bailey DL, Pichler BJ, Guckel B, Barthel H, Beer AJ, Botnar R, Gillies R, Goh V, Gotthardt M, Hicks RJ, Lanzenberger R, la Fougere C, Lentschig M, Nekolla SG, Niederdraenk T, Nikolaou K, Nuyts J, Olego D, Riklund KA, Signore A, Schafers M, Sossi V, Suminski M, Veit-Haibach P, Umutlu L, Wissmeyer M, Beyer T (2016) Combined PET/MRI: from status quo to status go. Summary report of the fifth international workshop on PET/MR imaging; February 15–19, 2016; Tubingen, Germany. Mol Imaging Biol 18(5):637–650
Beekman F, Have F (2006) The pinhole: gateway to ultra-high-resolution three-dimensional radionuclide imaging. Eur J Nucl Med Molec Imaging 34(2):151–161
Blodgett TM, Meltzer CC, Townsend DW (2007) PET/CT: form and function. Radiology 242(2):360–385
Buck AK, Herrmann K, Stargardt T, Dechow T, Krause BJ, Schreyogg J (2010) Economic evaluation of PET and PET/CT in oncology: evidence and methodologic approaches. J Nucl Med 51(3):401–412
Bybel B, Brunken RC, DiFilippo FP, Neumann DR, Wu G, Cerqueira MD (2008) SPECT/CT imaging: clinical utility of an emerging technology. Radiographics 28(4):1097–1113
Cherry SR (2009) Multimodality imaging: beyond PET/CT and SPECT/CT. Semin Nucl Med 39(5):348–353
Cherry SR, Jones T, Karp JS, Qi J, Moses WW, Badawi RD (2018) Total-body PET: maximizing sensitivity to create new opportunities for clinical research and patient care. J Nucl Med 59(1):3–12
Conti M (2009) State of the art and challenges of time-of-flight PET. Phys Med 25(1):1–11
Delso G, Ziegler S (2009) PET/MRI system design. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 36(Suppl 1):S86–S92
Ell PJ, Gambhir S (2004) Nuclear medicine in clinical diagnosis and treatment. Elsevier, Edinburgh
Frangioni JV (2008) New technologies for human cancer imaging. J Clin Oncol 26(24):4012–4021
Frisch B (2011) Development of ClearPEM-Sonic — A multimodal positron emission mammograph and ultrasound scanner. In: 2011 IEEE nuclear science symposium conference record, pp 2267–2272
Giesel FL, Will L, Kesch C, Freitag M, Kremer C, Merkle J, Neels OC, Cardinale J, Hadaschik B, Hohenfellner M, Kopka K, Haberkorn U, Kratochwil C (2018) Biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer: initial results with [(18)F]PSMA-1007 PET/CT. J Nucl Med 59(4):632–635
Han S, Woo S, Kim YJ, Suh CH (2018) Impact of 68Ga-PSMA PET on the management of patients with prostate cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Eur Urol (in Press, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eururo.2018.03.030)
Hillner BE, Siegel BA, Liu D, Shields AF, Gareen IF, Hanna L, Stine SH, Coleman RE (2008) Impact of positron emission tomography/computed tomography and positron emission tomography (PET) alone on expected management of patients with cancer: initial results from the National Oncologic PET registry. J Clin Oncol 26(13):2155–2161
Hutton BF, Erlandsson K, Thielemans K (2018) Advances in clinical molecular imaging instrumentation. Clin Transl Imaging 6(1):31–45
Jansen FP, Vanderheyden JL (2007) The future of SPECT in a time of PET. Nucl Med Biol 34(7):733–735
Karp JS, Surti S, Daube-Witherspoon ME, Muehllehner G (2008) Benefit of time-of-flight in PET: experimental and clinical results. J Nucl Med 49(3):462–470
Kohara R, Shirahata T, Nakazawa T, Miyazaki O, Kabuki S, Kurosawa S, Miuchi K, Kubo H, Tanimori T, Nakahara T, Kunieda E, Kubo A, Fujii H (2008) Advanced Compton camera system for nuclear medicine: prototype system study. In: Nuclear science symposium conference record, 2008, NSS ‘08, Dresden, IEEE, Piscataway, 19–25 December 2008
Lecomte R (2009) Novel detector technology for clinical PET. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 36(Suppl 1):S69–S85
Lecoq P (2017) Pushing the limits in time-of-flight PET imaging. IEEE Trans Radiat Plasma Med Sci 1(6):473–485
Lecoq P, Varela J (2002) Clear-PEM, a dedicated PET camera for mammography. Nucl Instrum Methods Phys Res Sect A 486(1):1–6
Lee AI, Zuckerman DS, Van den Abbeele AD, Aquino SL, Crowley D, Toomey C, Lacasce AS, Feng Y, Neuberg DS, Hochberg EP (2010) Surveillance imaging of Hodgkin lymphoma patients in first remission: a clinical and economic analysis. Cancer 116(16):3835–3842
Lewellen TK (2008) Recent developments in PET detector technology. Phys Med Biol 53(17):R287–R317
Mansueto M, Grimaldi A, Mangili G, Picchio M, Giovacchini G, Vigano R, Messa C, Fazio F (2009) Positron emission tomography/computed tomography introduction in the clinical management of patients with suspected recurrence of ovarian cancer: a cost-effectiveness analysis. Eur J Cancer Care (Engl) 18(6):612–619
Mawlawi O, Townsend DW (2009) Multimodality imaging: an update on PET/CT technology. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 36(Suppl 1):S15–S29
Meltzer CC, Leal JP, Mayberg HS, Wagner HN Jr, Frost JJ (1990) Correction of PET data for partial volume effects in human cerebral cortex by MR imaging. J Comput Assist Tomogr 14(4):561–570
Mueller C, Domnanich KA, Umbricht CA, van der Meulen NP (2018) Scandium and terbium radionuclides for radiotheranostics: current state of development towards clinical application. Br J Radiol: 91(1091):20180074, https://doi.org/10.1259/bjr.20180074
NCBI (2010) Molecular imaging and contrast agent database. National Library of Medicine (US). http://micad.nih.gov. Accessed 1 Aug 2010
Papathanassiou D, Liehn J (2008) The growing development of multimodality imaging in oncology. Crit Rev Oncol/Hematol 68(1):60–65
Pichler BJ, Wehrl HF, Judenhofer MS (2008) Latest advances in molecular imaging instrumentation. J Nucl Med 49(Suppl 2):5S–23S
Pysz MA, Gambhir SS, Willmann JK (2010) Molecular imaging: current status and emerging strategies. Clin Radiol 65(7):500–516
Seo Y, Mari C, Hasegawa B (2008) Technological development and advances in single-photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography. Semin Nucl Med 38(3):177–198
Soret M, Bacharach SL, Buvat I (2007) Partial-volume effect in PET tumor imaging. J Nucl Med 48(6):932–945
Strosberg J, El-Haddad G, Wolin E, Hendifar A, Yao J, Chasen B, Mittra E, Kunz PL, Kulke MH, Jacene H, Bushnell D, O’Dorisio TM, Baum RP, Kulkarni HR, Caplin M, Lebtahi R, Hobday T, Delpassand E, Van Cutsem E, Benson A, Srirajaskanthan R, Pavel M, Mora J, Berlin J, Grande E, Reed N, Seregni E, Öberg K, Lopera Sierra M, Santoro P, Thevenet T, Erion JL, Ruszniewski P, Kwekkeboom D, Krenning E (2017) Phase 3 trial of 177lu-dotatate for midgut neuroendocrine tumors. N Engl J Med 376(2):125–135
Tornai MP, Bowsher JE, Jaszczak RJ, Pieper BC, Greer KL, Hardenbergh PH, Coleman RE (2003) Mammotomography with pinhole incomplete circular orbit SPECT. J Nucl Med 44(4):583–593
Townsend DW (2008) Multimodality imaging of structure and function. Phys Med Biol 53(4):R1–R39
Viertl D, Buchegger F, Prior JO, Forni M, Morel P, Ratib O, Buhler Leo H, Stora T, C. M. collaboration (2015) CERN-MEDICIS (medical isotopes collected from ISOLDE): a new facility. Rev Med Suisse 11(479):1340–1344
Zaman MU, Hashmi I, Fatima N (2010) Recent developments and future prospects of SPECT myocardial perfusion imaging. Ann Nucl Med 24(8):565–569
Further Reading
Cherry SR, Sorenson S, Phelps M (2003) Physics in nuclear medicine. Saunders, Philadelphia
Ell PJ, Gambhir S (2004) Nuclear medicine in clinical diagnosis and treatment. Elsevier, Edinburgh
Tavernier S, Gektin A, Grinyov B, Moses WW (2006) Radiation detectors for medical applications. Springer, Dordrecht
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Prior, J.O., Lecoq, P. (2020). Radiation-Based Medical Imaging Techniques: An Overview. In: Fleck, I., Titov, M., Grupen, C., Buvat, I. (eds) Handbook of Particle Detection and Imaging. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47999-6_35-2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47999-6_35-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47999-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47999-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Physics and AstronomyReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics