Seminars in Nuclear Medicine
Volume 34, Issue 2 , Pages 87-111 , April 2004

Positron emission tomography: a review of basic principles, scanner design and performance, and current systems

  • Pat Zanzonico

      Affiliations

    • Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA
    • Corresponding Author InformationAddress reprint requests to Pat Zanzonico, PhD, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Avenue, New York, NY 10021 USA

References 

  1. Nutt R. The history of positron emission tomography. Mol Imaging Biol. 2002;4:11–26
  2. Phelps ME, Cherry SR. The changing design of positron imaging systems. Clin Positron Imaging. 1998;1:31–45
  3. Conti PS, Lilien DL, Hawley K, et al.  PET and [18F]-FDG in oncology (a clinical update). Nucl Med Biol. 1996;23:717–735
  4. Hoh CK, Schiepers C, Seltzer MA, et al.  PET in oncology (Will it replace the other modalities?). Semin Nucl Med. 1997;27:94–106
  5. Gambhir SS, Czernin J, Schwimmer J, et al.  A tabulated summary of the FDG PET literature. J Nucl Med. 2001;42:1S–93S
  6. Cherry SR, Sorenson JA, Phelps ME. Physics in Nuclear Medicine. In: (3rd ed).. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders; 2003;p. 325–359
  7. Humm JL, Rozenfeld A, Del Guerra A. From PET detectors to PET scanners. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2003;30:1574–1594
  8. Weber D, Eckerman K, Dillman L, et al.  MIRD (Radionuclide Data and Decay Schemes). In: New York: Society of Nuclear Medicine; 1989;p. 447
  9. In:  Firestone RB,  Shirley VS editor. Table of Isotopes. 8th ed.. New York: John Wiley & Sons; 1996;
  10. Graham MC, Pentlow KS, Mawlawi O, et al.  An investigation of the physical characteristics of 66Ga as an isotope for PET imaging and quantification. Med Phys. 1997;24:317–326
  11. Pentlow KS, Finn RD, Larson SL, et al.  Quantitative imaging of yttrium-86 with PET (the occurrence and correction of anomalous apparent activity in high density regions). Clin Positron Imaging. 2000;3:85–90
  12. Nutt R. For (Is LSO the future of PET?). Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2002;29:1523–1525
  13. Karp JS. Against (Is LSO the future of PET?). Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2002;29:1525–1528
  14. Melcher CL, Schweitzer JS. Cerium-doped lutetium oxyorthosilicate (a fast, efficient, new scintillator). IEEE Trans Nucl Sci. NS. 1992;39:502–505
  15. Kadrmas DJ, Christian PE. Comparative evaluation of lesion detectability for 6 PET imaging platforms using a highly reproducible whole-body phantom with (22)Na lesions and localization ROC analysis. J Nucl Med. 2002;43:1545–1554
  16. Tarantola G, Zito F, Gerundini P. PET instrumentation and reconstruction algorithms in whole-body applications. J Nucl Med. 2003;44:756–769
  17. Casey ME, Nutt R. A multi-slice two-dimensional BGO detector system for PET. IEE Trans Nucl Sci NS-. 1986;33:760–763
  18. Muehllehner G, Karp JS, Surti S. Design considerations for PET scanners. Q J Nucl Med. 2002;46:16–23
  19. In:  Bendriem B,  Townsend DW editor. The Theory and Practice of 3D PET. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers; 1998;
  20. Bailey D, Gilardi MC, Grootoonk S, et al.  Quantitative procedures in 3D PET. In:  Bendriem B,  Townsend DW editor. The Theory and Practice of 3D PET. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers; 1998;p. 55–109
  21. Daube-Witherspoon ME, Karp JS, Casey ME, et al.  PET performance measurements using the NEMA NU 2-2001 standard. J Nucl Med. 2002;43:1398–1409
  22. NEMA Standards Publication NU2–1994 (Performance Measurement of Positron Emission Tomographs). Washington, DC: National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA); 1994;
  23. NEMA Standards Publication NU2–2001 (Performance Measurement of Positron Emission Tomographs). Washington, DC: National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA); 2001;
  24. Derenzo SE. Mathematical removal of positron range blurring in high-resolution tomography. IEEE Trans Nucl Sci NS-. 1986;33:565–569
  25. Levin CS, Hoffman EJ. Calculation of positron range and its effect on the fundamental limit of positron emission tomography system spatial resolution. Phys Med Biol. 1999;44:781–799
  26. Berko S, Hereford FL. Experimental studies of positron interactions in solids and liquids. Rev Modern Phys. 1956;28:299–307
  27. Hoffman EJ, Huang SC, Phelps ME, et al.  Quantitation in positron emission computed tomography (4. Effect of accidental coincidences). J Comput Assist Tomogr. 1981;5:391–400
  28. Townsend DW, Bendriem B. Introduction to 3D PET. In:  Bendriem B,  Townsend DW editor. The Theory and Practice of 3D PET. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers; 1998;p. 1–10
  29. Thompson CJ. The problem of scatter correction in positron volume imaging. IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 1993;12:124–132
  30. Zaidi H. Comparative evaluation of scatter correction techniques in 3D positron emission tomography. Eur J Nucl Med. 2000;27:1813–1826
  31. Zaidi H. Scatter modelling and correction strategies in fully 3-D PET. Nucl Med Commun. 2001;22:1181–1184
  32. Jones W, Vaigneur K, Young J, et al.  The architectural impact of single photon transmission measurements on full-ring 3D positron tomography. IEEE Nucl Sci Symp Med Imaging Conf Rec. 1995;2:1026–1030
  33. Jones WF, Digby WM, Luk WK. Optimizing rod window width in positron emission tomography. IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 1995;14:266–270
  34. Watson CC, Jones WF, Brun T, et al.  Design and performance of a single photon transmission measurement for the ECAT ART. IEEE Nucl Sci Symp Med Imaging Conf Rec. 1997;2:1366–1370
  35. Meikle SR, Bailey DL, Hooper PK, et al.  Simultaneous emission and transmission measurements for attenuation correction in whole-body PET. J Nucl Med. 1995;36:1680–1688
  36. Xu EZ, Mullani NA, Gould KL, et al.  A segmented attenuation correction for PET. J Nucl Med. 1991;32:161–165
  37. Meikle SR, Dahlbom M, Cherry SR. Attenuation correction using count-limited transmission data in positron emission tomography. J Nucl Med. 1993;34:143–150
  38. Schoder H, Erdi YE, Larson SM, et al.  PET/CT (a new imaging technology in nuclear medicine). Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2003;30:1419–1437
  39. Beyer T, Townsend DW, Blodgett TM. Dual-modality PET/CT tomography for clinical oncology. Q J Nucl Med. 2002;46:24–34
  40. Beyer T, Townsend DW, Brun T, et al.  A combined PET/CT scanner for clinical oncology. J Nucl Med. 2000;41:1369–1379
  41. Kinahan PE, Townsend DW, Beyer T, et al.  Attenuation correction for a combined 3D PET/CT scanner. Med Phys. 1998;25:2046–2053
  42. Nehmeh SA, Erdi YE, Ling CC, et al.  Effect of respiratory gating on quantifying PET images of lung cancer. J Nucl Med. 2002;43:876–881
  43. Nehmeh SA, Erdi YE, Ling CC, et al.  Effect of respiratory gating on reducing lung motion artifacts in PET imaging of lung cancer. Med Phys. 2002;29:366–371
  44. Defrise M, Kinahan P. Data acquisition and image reconstruction for 3D PET. In:  Bendriem B,  Townsend DW editor. The Theory and Practice of 3D PET. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers; 1998;p. 11–53
  45. Colsher JG. Fully three-dimensional positron emission tomography. Phys Med Biol. 1980;20:103–115
  46. Kinahan P, Rogers JG. Analytic three-dimensional image reconstruction using all detected events. IEEE Trans Nucl Sci NS-. 1989;36:964–968
  47. Daube-Witherspoon ME, Muehllehner G. Treatment of axial data in three-dimensional PET. J Nucl Med. 1987;28:1717–1724
  48. Lewitt RM, Muehllehner G, Karp JS. Three-dimensional image reconstruction for PET by multi-slice rebinning and axial image filtering. Phys Med Biol. 1994;39:321–339
  49. Defrise M, Kinahan PE, Townsend DW, et al.  Exact and approximate rebinning algorithms for 3D PET data. IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 1997;16:145–158
  50. Zanzonico PB. Technical requirements for SPECT (equipment and quality control). In:  Kramer EL,  Sanger JJ editor. Clinical Applications in SPECT. New York: Raven Press; 1995;p. 7–41
  51. Miller TR, Wallis JW. Fast maximum-likelihood reconstruction. J Nucl Med. 1992;33: 1710–171
  52. Miller TR, Wallis JW. Clinically important characteristics of maximum-likelihood reconstruction. J Nucl Med. 1992;33:1678–1684
  53. Hudson HM, Larkin RS. Accelerated image reconstruction using ordered subsets of projection data. IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 1994;13:601–609
  54. Matej S, Lewitt RM. Practical considerations for 3-D image reconstruction using spherically symmetric volume elements. IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 1996;15:68–78
  55. Matej S, Lewitt RM. Efficient 3D grids for image reconstruction using spherical-symmetric volume elements. IEEE Trans Nucl Sci. 1996;42:1361–1370
  56. Daube-Witherspoon ME, Matej S, Karp JS, et al.  Application of the 3D row action maximum likelihood algorithm to clinical PET imaging. IEEE Trans Nucl Sci. 2001;48:24–30
  57. Hoffman EJ, Huang SC, Phelps ME. Quantitation in positron emission computed tomography (1. Effect of object size). J Comput Assist Tomogr. 1979;3:299–308
  58. Schoder H, Erdi Y, Larson S, et al.  PET/CT (A new imaging technology in nuclear medicine). Eur J Nucl Med Mol. 2003;30:1419–1437
  59. PET on display (Notes from the 59th SNM Annual Meeting). J Nucl Med (Newsline). 2003;24N–26N
  60. Kluetz PG, Meltzer CC, Villemagne VL, et al.  Combined PET/CT Imaging in Oncology. Impact on Patient Management. Clin Positron Imaging. 2000;3:223–230
  61. Ling CC, Humm J, Larson S, et al.  Towards multidimensional radiotherapy (MD-CRT) (biological imaging and biological conformality). Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2000;47:551–560
  62. Chatziioannou AF. PET scanners dedicated to molecular imaging of small animal models. Mol Imaging Biol. 2002;4:47–63
  63. Del Guerra A, Belcari N. Advances in animal PET scanners. Q J Nucl Med. 2002;46:35–47
  64. Herschman HR. Micro-PET imaging and small animal models of disease. Curr Opin Immunol. 2003;15:378–384
  65. Jeavons AP. Small-animal PET cameras. J Nucl Med. 2000;41:1442–1443
  66. Myers R. The biological application of small animal PET imaging. Nucl Med Biol. 2001;28:585–593
  67. Myers R, Hume S. Small animal PET. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2002;12:545–555
  68. Tornai MP, Jaszczak RJ, Turkington TG, et al.  Small-animal PET (advent of a new era of PET research). J Nucl Med. 1999;40:1176–1179
  69. Chatziioannou AF, Cherry SR, Shao Y, et al.  Performance evaluation of microPET (a high-resolution lutetium oxyorthosilicate PET scanner for animal imaging). J Nucl Med. 1999;40:1164–1175
  70. Cherry SR, Shao Y, Silverman RW, et al.  MicroPET (a high resolution PET scanner for imaging small animals). IEEE Trans Nucl Sci NS-. 1997;44:1161–1166
  71. Tai C, Chatziioannou A, Siegel S, et al.  Performance evaluation of the microPET P4 (a PET system dedicated to animal imaging). Phys Med Biol. 2001;46:1845–1862
  72. Motta A, Damiani C, Del Guerra A, et al.  Use of a fast EM algorithm for 3D image reconstruction with the YAP-PET tomograph. Comput Med Imaging Graph. 2002;26:293–302
  73. Jeavons A, Chandler RA, Dettmar CAR. A 3D HIDAC-PET camera with sub-millimetre resolution for imaging small animals. IEEE Trans Nucl Sci. 1999;46:468–473
  74. Townsend D, Frey P, Jeavons A, et al.  High density avalanche chamber (HIDAC) positron camera. J Nucl Med. 1987;28:1554–1562
  75. Evans RD. The Atomic Nucleus. In: New York: McGraw-Hill; 1972;p. 628

PII: S0001-2998(03)00104-1

doi: 10.1053/j.semnuclmed.2003.12.002

Seminars in Nuclear Medicine
Volume 34, Issue 2 , Pages 87-111 , April 2004