Positronium in Biosystems and Medicine: A New Approach to Tumor Diagnostics Based on Correlation between Oxygenation of Tissues and Lifetime of the Positronium Atom

Abstract

Abstract: Current trends in development of positron annihilation tomography (change-over to total body tomography, new image reconstruction methods based on Time-of-Flight techniques and 3γ annihilation events) are discussed. They open up unique possibilities of identifying both the annihilation point of Ps atoms and their lifetime in the tissues of the organism under study (Ps imaging). Our experimental data are presented that demonstrate a relationship between the Ps lifetime and the degree of oxygenation of tissues, which is actually a new additional method for tumor diagnostics using е+е– annihilation.