design and evaluation of a clinical organ-targeted positron emission tomography camera
abstract
positron emission tomography (pet) is a non-invasive medical imaging technique
which usesradioactive tracers to visualize the metabolic or biochemical function of tissues and
organs. pet imaging aides in the accurate diagnosis and management of disease including
neurodegeneration and cancer. standard clinical practice uses whole-body (wb) pet
technology which is limited in its ability to detect small lesions due to inadequate spatial
resolution and the need for high radiotracer doses due to low sensitivity. this has prompted
the development of organ-targeted pet, which places limited field-of-view (fov) detectors
near to an organ for imaging. this approach offers distinct advantages over wb pet, including
improved spatial resolution for lesion detection, greater sensitivity for imaging with lower
radiotracer doses, and contrast recovery capabilities which permit accurate quantification of
radiotracer uptake in small structures. [...]