Tu - PET physics for medical students

Question 1

What does PET stand for?

Answer 1

Positron Emission Tomography

Question 2

What are positrons?

Answer 2

Emits radiation that we can use in PET

Question 3

What do we use to measure uptake in PET?

Answer 3

Radioactivity atom can get rid of the excess energy and get to the ground state by releasing energy either in the form of radiation or in the form of particles

Question 4

Why does PET have bad spatial resolution? Explain complicated.

Answer 4

PET has bad spatial resolution because we use a position emitting radionuclide, but what we detect is the annihilation of the positron. And in between the point where the positron is emitted and where it annihilates, there’s always this random walk where the positron loses its energy

Question 5

Why does PET allow for an earlier treatment response? Explain complicated.

Answer 5

PET allows for an earlier treatment response because it can pick up how much glucose the tumor uses and how that’s more than normal. That’s why we use PET for the staging of disease.