Instrumentation for coincidence imaging with multihead scintillation cameras

Positron emission tomography (PET) has been used as a tool by investigators for many years to study metabolic processes in the body primarily with the radiopharmaceutical 18-fluordeoxyglucose. However, use of this technology has not been widespread because of the high expense of the equipment and its limitation to the imaging of positron emitters only. Recent improvements in scintillation camera technology have now made it possible to produce hybrid multihead cameras that can function in a coincidence mode for the detection of the annihilation radiation from positron emitters and in the normal mode for routine single-photon imaging. Although still limited in sensitivity, these camera systems continue to be improved and the recent addition of iterative reconstruction algorithms and attenuation correction capability have resulted in significant improvements in image quality. The integration of a low resolution computed tomography (CT) scanner with a dualhead camera by 1 manufacturer now makes it possible to perform attenuation correction and image fusion of anatomy and function into 1 image to improve the anatomic localization of abnormalities detected with coincidence imaging. Investigators continue to work on improved electronics and new types of detectors to further improve the sensitivity of these systems. These developments coupled with continued improvements in PET technology have resulted in the availability of a broad spectrum of systems for the investigator to consider when purchasing a system with positron imaging capability.