Advances in nuclear emission PET and SPECT imaging

Improvements in technology and methods have resulted in a field that is ready to unlock the body´s secrets. The advancements reviewed in this article are remarkable. Just ten years ago, SPECT myocardial tomograms exhibited a spatial resolution of close to 2 cm and PET scanners were prohibitively expensive. The instrumentation reviewed can image down to a 1.8 mm spatial resolution, and high-performance PET scanners and PET/SPECT cameras are being routinely sold for one-third the cost of the high-end PET scanners of ten years ago. These gains, coupled with the relative ease of developing positron-emitting radiopharmaceuticals, opens a new chapter in physiologic imaging. Add to this that these modalities are inherently digital, facilitating their progress in totally automatic analysis; multidimensional, multimodality display; and computer-assisted image interpretation by the use of AI techniques. The result is a field poised to unlock the secrets of the body´s functions, when the only limitation is one´s own imagination and the number of scientists working to bring it to its full potential