Lecture

Introduction to Emission Tomography

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Description

This lecture covers the fundamentals of emission tomography in biomedical imaging, focusing on examples of human brain and heart imaging using radiotracers, as well as the basic elements required for gamma-emitter imaging. The instructor explains the concept of emission computed tomography, the injection of radioactive tracers, and the equipment needed for gamma-emitter imaging. Various examples are provided, such as Thallium SPECT scans for CNS lymphoma and Alzheimer's disease imaging. The lecture also discusses the importance of tracers with specific half-lives and photon energies for emission tomography.

In MOOC

Fundamentals of Biomedical Imaging: Ultrasounds, X-ray, positron emission tomography (PET) and applications

This course shows how existing physical principles transcend into bio-imaging and establish an important link into life sciences, illustrating the contributions physics can make to life sciences. Practical examples will be shown to illustrate the respective imaging modality, its use, premise and limitations, and biological safety will be touched upon. During this course, you will develop a good understanding of the mechanisms leading to tissue contrast of the bio-imaging modalities covered in this course, i

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Ontological neighbourhood

Health sciences

Radiology: Topics in radiology

Related concepts (25)

Medical imaging

Medical imaging is the technique and process of imaging the interior of a body for clinical analysis and medical intervention, as well as visual representation of the function of some organs or tissues (physiology). Medical imaging seeks to reveal internal structures hidden by the skin and bones, as well as to diagnose and treat disease. Medical imaging also establishes a database of normal anatomy and physiology to make it possible to identify abnormalities.

Single-photon emission computed tomography

Single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT, or less commonly, SPET) is a nuclear medicine tomographic imaging technique using gamma rays. It is very similar to conventional nuclear medicine planar imaging using a gamma camera (that is, scintigraphy), but is able to provide true 3D information. This information is typically presented as cross-sectional slices through the patient, but can be freely reformatted or manipulated as required.

Positron emission tomography

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a functional imaging technique that uses radioactive substances known as radiotracers to visualize and measure changes in metabolic processes, and in other physiological activities including blood flow, regional chemical composition, and absorption. Different tracers are used for various imaging purposes, depending on the target process within the body. For example, -FDG is commonly used to detect cancer, NaF is widely used for detecting bone formation, and oxygen-15 is sometimes used to measure blood flow.

Radioactive tracer

A radioactive tracer, radiotracer, or radioactive label is a chemical compound in which one or more atoms have been replaced by a radionuclide so by virtue of its radioactive decay it can be used to explore the mechanism of chemical reactions by tracing the path that the radioisotope follows from reactants to products. Radiolabeling or radiotracing is thus the radioactive form of isotopic labeling. In biological contexts, use of radioisotope tracers are sometimes called radioisotope feeding experiments.

Gamma camera

A gamma camera (γ-camera), also called a scintillation camera or Anger camera, is a device used to image gamma radiation emitting radioisotopes, a technique known as scintigraphy. The applications of scintigraphy include early drug development and nuclear medical imaging to view and analyse images of the human body or the distribution of medically injected, inhaled, or ingested radionuclides emitting gamma rays. Scintigraphy ("scint") is the use of gamma cameras to capture emitted radiation from internal radioisotopes to create two-dimensional images.

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