Recent Advances and Future Progress in PET Instrumentation

PET is an important and growing imaging modality. PET instrumentation has undergone a steady evolution improving various aspects of imaging. In this review, we discuss recent and future software and hardware technologies for PET/CT. The improvements include new hardware, incorporating designs with digital photomultipliers, and fast electronics, allowing implementation of time-of-flight reconstruction. Manufacturers also improved PET sensitivity with a larger axial field of view and 3D imaging. On the CT side, faster scanners and multislice detectors allow implementation of advanced acquisition protocols such as 4D CT and coronary CT angiography. Significant advances have been also made in the reconstruction software, now integrating resolution recovery with advanced iterative techniques. New PET acquisition protocols have been enabled to include continuous bed motion. Efforts have been undertaken to compensate PET scans for respiratory and also for cardiac patient motion (for cardiac imaging) during PET imaging, which significantly improves overall image quality and resolution. Finally, simultaneous PET/MR systems have been recently deployed clinically and now offer even greater potential of image quality and enhanced clinical utility. PET/MR imaging allows for perfectly registered attenuation maps, clinically important complementary MR information, and potentially superior motion correction. These recent multifaceted advances allow PET to remain as one of the most exciting and relevant imaging technologies.