Less commonly used and emerging clinical applications of SPECT-CT in benign and malignant disease

The emergence of hybrid imaging, combining anatomical computed tomography (CT) and functional single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), has greatly expanded the armoury available to image disease. Integrated SPECT-CT is a dual-modality technique, which improves the sensitivity and specificity of existing radionuclide studies and enables characterization of equivocal findings detected by conventional imaging. There is a wide range of established and emerging clinical applications for SPECT-CT, which were reviewed in detail at a symposium organized by the British Institute of Radiology in March 2012. A series of articles were commissioned as an adjunct to the symposium and to raise awareness of the clinical utility of this technique. The focus of this article is on less commonly used and emerging clinical applications of hybrid SPECT-CT in a spectrum of benign and malignant conditions. The article will illustrate the incremental value of the technique in a variety of clinical applications.