Abstract
Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is intrinsically a three-dimensional (3D) imaging technique. Neutron-deficient isotopes may undergo nuclear decay by the emission of a positron, or positive electron, and a neutrino. A positron has the same mass, but opposite charge, to that of the electron. Depending on the specific isotope, positrons are emitted with a small amount of energy (a few MeV, maximum), which they rapidly lose by collisions with the atoms in the surrounding medium (tissue). Once the positron energy becomes sufficiently small, an encounter with a free electron in the tissue results in a matter-antimatter annihilation from which two photons emerge almost 180° opposed (fig. 1.1). The range of the positron in tissue from the point of emission to the point of annihilation with an electron may be a few millimeters, depending on the energy of emission from the nucleus. Deviation from 180° occurs when the positron-electron system has some residual momentum which must be conserved in the annihilation process. The energy of each of the photons from positron annihilation is 511 keV, equal to the rest mass of the electron or positron. The pairs of 511 keV annihilation photons are then emitted into a 4π solid angle (i.e. in 3D) without any particular preferential direction. Detection in coincidence of the pairs of photons from individual annihilations yields information on the underlying distribution of the positron-emitting tracer.
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Townsend, D.W., Bendriem, B. (1998). Introduction to 3D PET. In: Bendriem, B., Townsend, D.W. (eds) The Theory and Practice of 3D PET. Developments in Nuclear Medicine, vol 32. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3475-2_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3475-2_1
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