The imaging of neuroendocrine tumors using single photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography

There have been several advances in technology over the past decade with the advent of hybrid imaging having a large impact on nuclear medicine, first with PET/CT and then more recently with SPECT/CT. Initial SPECT/CT systems used low dose but very low quality CT and except for attenuation correction offered no great advantage over reviewing SPECT and CT images side by side. More recently hybrid machines have become available and a series of studies have shown improved accuracy compared to SPECT alone with resulting changes in patient management. This has been true not only with somatostatin analogue imaging but also for demonstrating amine uptake using MIBG. Whilst PET/CT may be seen as the ideal, this may be less accessible due to the high cost and limited availability. In this case hybrid SPECT/CT offers hope for providing high quality and accurate imaging of neuroendocrine tumors.