Three Dimensional Image Reconstruction In Radiology And Nuclear Medicine

This book contains a selection of communications presented at the Third International Meeting on Fully Three-Dimensional Image Reconstruction in Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, held 4-6 July 1995 at Domaine d' Aix-Marlioz, Aix-Ies-Bains, France. This nice resort provided an inspiring environment to hold discussions and presentations on new and developing issues. Roentgen discovered X-ray radiation in 1895 and Becquerel found natural radioactivity in 1896 : a hundred years later, this conference was focused on the applications of such radiations to explore the human body. If the physics is now fully understood, 3D imaging techniques based on ionising radiations are still progressing. These techniques include 3D Radiology, 3D X-ray Computed Tomography (3D-CT), Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT), Positron Emission Tomography (PET). Radiology is dedicated to morphological imaging, using transmitted radiations from an external X-ray source, and nuclear medicine to functional imaging, using radiations emitted from an internal radioactive tracer. In both cases, new 3D tomographic systems will tend to use 2D detectors in order to improve the radiation detection efficiency. Taking a set of 2D acquisitions around the patient, 3D acquisitions are obtained. Then, fully 3D image reconstruction algorithms are required to recover the 3D image of the body from these projection measurements.

The best known of the new 3-D imaging modalities is X-ray computed tomography , but exciting progress has been made and practical systems developed in 3-D imaging with radioisotopes, ultrasound, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). These volumes will feature up-to-date reviews by leading scientists in each of these imaging areas, providing a timely and informative comparison of the intrinsic capabilities, complementary attributes, advantages and limitations, and medical significance among the different three-dimensional medical imaging modalities.

The best known of the new 3-D imaging modalities is X-ray computed tomography, but exciting progress has been made and practical systems developed in 3-D imaging with radioisotopes, ultrasound, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). These volumes will feature up-to-date reviews by leading scientists in each of these imaging areas, providing a timely and informative comparison of the intrinsic capabilities, complementary attributes, advantages and limitations, and medical significance among the different three-dimensional medical imaging modalities.

The application of 3D methodology has recently been receiving increasing attention at many PET centres, and this monograph is an attempt to provide a state-of-the-art review of this methodology, covering 3D reconstruction methods, quantitative procedures, current tomography performance, and clinical and research applications. No such review has been available until now to assist PET researchers in understanding and implementing 3D methodology, and in evaluating the performance of the available imaging technology. In all the chapters, the subject matter is treated in sufficient depth to appeal equally to the physicist or engineer who wishes to establish the methodology, and to PET investigators with experience in 2D PET who wish to familiarize themselves with the concepts and advantages of 3D, and to be made aware of the pitfalls.

PET and SPECT are two of today’s most important medical-imaging methods, providing images that reveal subtle information about physiological processes in humans and animals. Emission Tomography: The Fundamentals of PET and SPECT explains the physics and engineering principles of these important functional-imaging methods. The technology of emission tomography is covered in detail, including historical origins, scientific and mathematical foundations, imaging systems and their components, image reconstruction and analysis, simulation techniques, and clinical and laboratory applications. The book describes the state of the art of emission tomography, including all facets of conventional SPECT and PET, as well as contemporary topics such as iterative image reconstruction, small-animal imaging, and PET/CT systems. This book is intended as a textbook and reference resource for graduate students, researchers, medical physicists, biomedical engineers, and professional engineers and physicists in the medical-imaging industry. Thorough tutorials of fundamental and advanced topics are presented by dozens of the leading researchers in PET and SPECT. SPECT has long been a mainstay of clinical imaging, and PET is now one of the world’s fastest growing medical imaging techniques, owing to its dramatic contributions to cancer imaging and other applications. Emission Tomography: The Fundamentals of PET and SPECT is an essential resource for understanding the technology of SPECT and PET, the most widely used forms of molecular imaging. *Contains thorough tutorial treatments, coupled with coverage of advanced topics *Three of the four holders of the prestigious Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Medical Imaging Scientist Award are chapter contributors *Include color artwork