Elements of gamma camera and SPECT systems

Abstract

Nuclear medicine provides noninvasive imaging tools to detect a variety of human diseases. The two major components of these imaging procedures are radiopharmaceuticals and an imaging system. The latter is a position-sensitive detector that relies on detecting gamma photons emitted from the administered radionuclide. Many single-photon and positron emitters are used in the nuclear medicine clinic. The radiopharmaceuticals are designed for tracing many pathophysiologic as well as molecular disorders and utilize the penetrating capability of gamma rays to functionally map the distribution of the administered compound within different biological tissues. The imaging systems used for detection of radionuclide-labeled compounds are special devices called scintillation cameras or positron emission tomographic (PET) scanners. These devices have passed through a number of developments since their introduction in the late 1960s and have had a significant impact on the practice and diagnostic quality of nuclear medicine. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.