PET. CT

Significance of PET CT

PET-CT has revolutionized medical diagnosis in many fields, by adding precision of anatomic localization to functional imaging, which was previously lacking from pure PET imaging. For example, many diagnostic imaging procedures in oncology,surgical planning, radiation therapy andcancer staging have been changing rapidly under the influence of PET-CT availability, and centers have been gradually abandoning conventional PET devices and substituting them by PET-CTs. Although the combined/hybrid device is considerably more expensive, it has the advantage of providing both functions as stand-alone examinations, being, in fact, two devices in one.

The only other obstacle to the wider use of PET-CT is the difficulty and cost of producing and transporting theradiopharmaceuticals used for PET imaging, which are usually extremely short-lived (for instance, the half life of radioactive fluorine₁₈ used to traceglucose metabolism (usingfluorodeoxyglucose, FDG) is two hours only. Its production requires a very expensive cyclotron as well as a production line for the radiopharmaceuticals.