Functional And Molecular Imaging Flashcards
What is functional imaging
Mapping in 3D the distribution of tumour, tissue or functional feature
Provide information about the clinical response of tumours or healthy tissues to ionising radiation
Usually means NUCLEAR MEDICINE: PET/SPECT
Types of functional imaging
PET/CT
SPECT/CT
MRI
Problems with CT based anatomical imaging
CT has a limited spatial resolution and sensitivity - cannot visual true extent of tumour
Often can’t resolve Mets or nodal involvement
Assumes uniform radiosensitivity
SPECT CT
Injection of gamma emitting radioisotopes
Uses a gamma camera
TC99 @stable state
PET/CT
Different radioactive decay than SPECT -> positron decay
MRI sequence types
T1 images - gross anatomy
T2 images - biological pathology
MRSI - Magnetic resonance spectroscopy imaging
DCE-MRI - Dynamic contrast enhanced MRI
DWI- Diffusion weighted mRI
Fast pulse sequences
Hyperpolarisation
What does nuclear medicine involve
Measure the distribution of a
radionuclide in the body
● Distribution of radionuclide or
radiopharmaceutical should
correlate with a biological
process
● Gamma camera
Half life
Need a half life that is not too long - otherwise patient will be radioactive for too long
Not too short- otherwise it can’t be tracked in imaging
Technetium - 99 is 6hr half life - the most appropriate
PET advantages
Compared to other nuclear med techniques:
Spatial resolution and quantification is better
PET problems
Coincidence measurement: scattered radiation and random coincidence
True coincidence
Coincidences simultaneously detected on both
detectors resulting from the same annihilation of a
positron and corresponding to the 511 keV energy
photons not having undergone any scatter
Scattered radiation
Photons from the same
annihilation
– Due to scattering the
assumption that the
annihilation took place on a
line joining the two detection
points is incorrect
– Energy of scattered photon
will be lower than 511 keV
Random coincidences
Photons emitted by different
annihilations but detected in
the same time window
– Background noise
– Reduced by lowering
coincidence time window
– Axial filters or septa
How to reduce random coincidences
Reducing time window
Using filters and collimator (however it may impact true coincidences)
SUV
Standard uptake value: index of tracer uptake that can be compared between subjects
Tu is the tumour uptake from the image
Q is the injected dose per unit mass of the patient