PET Flashcards
What discovery was the foundation of PET imaging?
Of the positron and the principles of positron annihilation by Anderson 1932
What discovery enables the production of radioactive tracers?
Cyclotron 1930
Who invented the positron imaging device?
Sweet and Brownell 1953
What is the most commonly used raioactive tracer?
FDG- fluorodeoxyglucose which acts as a naturally occuring glucose in the body
What produces the gamma rays for the PET images?
FDG binds to the naturally ocurring glucose in the body and reacts with the positron which targets the electron, when hits an electron at the right speed, they combine and destroy each other, producing the gamma rays
Outline how emission and annihilation produce gamma rays
- FDG positron is emitted
- The carbon atom emits the protein
- It propogates a particular region of the brain
- Target the electron causing the positron annihilation which is decayed into two gamma rays
- Emitted in two opposite directions with equal intensities
- Has 2 gamma photons of 511keV (kilo electron energy)
What is the average travelling distance of the positron determinant of?
The maximum spatial resolution of PET (around 1mm)
What are the components of the PET scanner?
- Patient table
- Detector blocks in a detection ring
- Coincidence processing unit
- Sinogram/listmode data
- Image reconstruction
What is the detector block comprised of?
- Scintillator crystals (absorb the gamma rays)
- Photo multiplier (amplify the gamma signal then send it the processing unit)
What detects the gamma rays at two ends of the table?
- Detection rings
- Radioactive tracer targets the brain areas and emits the gamma rays/photons in two directions which are detected by the detection rings and sent to the processing unit
What is the PET resolution dependent on?
- The size and type of detectors
- The diameter
- The rings (the closer to the object, the better)
What indicates increased neural activity?
Concentration of gamma ray emission indicates increased neural activity in the brain
How are the unstable radioisotopes created?
- By nuclear reaction in a cyclotron
- Negative hydrogen atoms are accelerated at high speed to 11 MeV by D-shaped electromagnets
- The beam is extracted from the cyclotron by passing through a thin carbon foil, which strips off the electrons, leaving protons
- The protons are swept out of the beam and hit the target (usually lead) to form the isotopes
- The nature of the target (material) determines the radionuclide produced
How is the isotope/tracer created?
Radionuclides that emit positrons are chemically added to biological molecules which can then be introduced into the body
What are the most commonly used isotopes for PET?
- Carbon 11
- Nitrogen 13
- Oxygen 15
- Flourine 18
- The radiotracers do not lose thier biological activity i.e. H215O behaves like H216O