P.E.T.

This book is an ideal text on PET imaging technology that focuses on the basics, such as physics, instrumentation, production of PET radionuclides and radiopharmaceuticals, and regulations affecting PET. The chapters are concise but comprehensive, making the topic easily understandable, and they are complete with reviews of pertinent basic science and lists of suggested reading. Practical tables and appendixes contain a wealth of valuable data, reflecting the book's usefulness as a reference for nuclear medicine professionals, including physicians, residents, and technologists. The book also benefits technologists and residents preparing for board examinations because of its brevity and clarity of content.

Few advances in medicine have had more of an impact on modern health care than the invention of PET-CT studies of FDG in the living human body and experimental animals. Biochemistry has been superimposed on anatomy, which is a giant leap forward. The expertise required for the interpretation of CT must now be combined with the expert interpretation of the biochemical information of the FDG study. The idea that the interpretation of the images simply requires the superimposition of the two image modalities is simple is clearly not true. What is needed is a clear und- standing of the sites of metabolic activity revealed by FDG studies in normal persons, and its variability from person to person. For example, FDG accumulates in various structures in the head and neck,and in the ovaries and uterus of normal women during certain phases of the menstrual cycle. The case method of teaching has stood the test of time for more than a hundred years and is still valid as new modalities are developed and introduced into medical practice. The authors,both of whom have considerable experience in the performance and interpretation of PET-CT studies with FDG, have made an important contri- tion that will be of great value to nuclear medicine physicians,radiologists,oncologists, and other physicians with the responsibility of caring for patients with cancer. Capabilities and limitations are discussed in the context of speci?c problems and patients.

PET and SPECT are two of todays most important medical-imaging methods, providing images that reveal subtle information about physiological processes in humans and animals. "Emission Tomography: The Fundamentals of PET and SPECT" explains the physics and engineering principles of these important functional-imaging methods. The technology of emission tomography is covered in detail, including historical origins, scientific and mathematical foundations, imaging systems and their components, image reconstruction and analysis, simulation techniques, and clinical and laboratory applications. The book describes the state of the art of emission tomography, including all facets of conventional SPECT and PET, as well as contemporary topics, such as iterative image reconstruction, small-animal imaging, and PET/CT systems. This book is intended as a textbook and reference resource for graduate students, researchers, medical physicists, biomedical engineers, and professional engineers and physicists in the medical-imaging industry. Thorough tutorials of fundamental and advanced topics are presented by dozens of the leading researchers in PET and SPECT. SPECT has long been a mainstay of clinical imaging, and PET is now one of the worlds fastest growing medical imaging techniques, owing to its dramatic contributions to cancer imaging and other applications. "Emission Tomography: The Fundamentals of PET and SPECT" is an essential resource for understanding the technology of SPECT and PET, the most widely used forms of molecular imaging. The features are: contains thorough tutorial treatments, coupled with coverage of advanced topics; three of the four holders of the prestigious Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Medical Imaging Scientist Award are chapter contributors; and includes color artwork.

This is the only comprehensive and up-to-date book on neurological PET. Its goal is to facilitate cooperation between PET experts, neuroscientists and clinicians. We review PET in neuroscience with particular emphasis on findings that indicate its potential for improving diagnosis and treatment in neurology and psychiatry. We want to improve the transfer of the huge scientific developments in brain PET into clinical care to produce tangible human benefit. We therefore focus on practical and potentially clinically relevant issues and identify solid ground as well as open questions. In addition, the book includes major chapters on the methodological background, including tracer physiology and kinetic modeling, and a comprehensive literature review. The book contains a CD-ROM with video clips and interactive navigation in 3D data sets that illustrate the information contained in PET images in major neurological diseases and its potential to improve diagnosis and neurosurgical planning in brain tumors.9

This book is written as both a text and a reference book. It contains numerous images from the biological sciences and clinical practice, tables, graphs, and fig- ures, as well as exercises that are worked out to aid the reader in understanding principles or solving problems. In some cases, derivations are placed in appen- dices so as not to break up the flow of the subject matter in the text. The book is intended for a broad audience interested in molecular imaging with positron emission tomography (PET). It is expected that the readers will range from undergraduate, graduate, and medical students to residents, physi- cians, and scientists with backgrounds from various physical, biological, and medical specialty areas. Each chapter presents material in a straightforward man- ner that is well illustrated and explained. Because of the diverse audience for the book, certain chapters or sections of chapters will be of more interest than oth- ers to certain segments of the readership. Chapter 1 introduces the fundamental physics upon which PET imaging sys- tems is based and discusses in detail the technologies and methods used to pro- duce PET images. The chapter starts out by reviewing the physics of positron emission and annihilation and explains how positron range and photon non- colinearity in coincidence detection place certain limits on spatial resolution.

Molecular imaging technologies, such as positron emission tomography (PET), has enabled mapping and measuring of the physiological and biochemical processes at molecular levels. Since the first PET symposium held in 1999, rapid progress has been made in this field and it was a good time to share recent experiences on PET and molecular imaging with specialists from around the world.

"PET and PET-CT in Oncology" describes the principles of positron emission tomography and is a useful resource for incorporating the technique in clinical practice. In a clear and straightforward fashion, the book offers instructive information and overviews of the basic principles of PET and PET-CT as well as the routine clinical PET scanning procedures for all important oncological indications. It is designed to serve as a reference work for specialists in nuclear medicine and radiology (including therapy planning) and for oncologists. It also provides student and physicians in other medical specialities with a general introduction to the effective integration of this modern technique into routine clinical diagnostics. Above all, this volume illustrates the importance of PET and PET-CT in comparison with other imaging techniques.