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Small-animal PET: What is it, and why do we need it?

  • Université de Sherbrooke

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

108 Scopus citations

Abstract

Small-animal PET refers to imaging of animals such as rats and mice using dedicated PET scanners. Small-animal PET has been used extensively in modern biomedical research. It provides a quantitative measure of the 3-dimensional distribution of a radiopharmaceutical administered to a live subject noninvasively. In this article, we will discuss the operational and technical aspects of small-animal PET; make some comparisons between small-animal PET and human PET systems; identify the challenges of, opportunities for, and ultimate limitations in applying small-animal PET; and discuss some representative small-animal PET applications. Education objectives: After reading this article, the technologist will be able to explain the requirements and benefits of small-animal PET in biomedical research, describe the design and general characteristics of a small-animal PET system, list and describe some of the challenges of imaging small animals, and discuss several small-animal PET applications.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)157-165
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
Volume40
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2012

Keywords

  • Animal imaging
  • Positron emission tomography (PET)

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