Design and evaluation of a clinical organ-targeted positron emission tomography camera

Abstract

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is a non-invasive medical imaging technique which usesradioactive tracers to visualize the metabolic or biochemical function of tissues and organs. PET imaging aides in the accurate diagnosis and management of disease including neurodegeneration and cancer. Standard clinical practice uses whole-body (WB) PET technology which is limited in its ability to detect small lesions due to inadequate spatial resolution and the need for high radiotracer doses due to low sensitivity. This has prompted the development of organ-targeted PET, which places limited field-of-view (FOV) detectors near to an organ for imaging. This approach offers distinct advantages over WB PET, including improved spatial resolution for lesion detection, greater sensitivity for imaging with lower radiotracer doses, and contrast recovery capabilities which permit accurate quantification of radiotracer uptake in small structures. [...]