Definition
Positron emission tomography (PET) is a functional imaging technique, which relies on the detection of photons generated by the annihilation of a positron emitted by an instable isotope labeling a compound administered to a subject.
Pre-existing Condition
In the daily clinical practice PET is used, in the vast majority of cases, for cancer staging and follow-up. PET, however, is an extremely flexible technique, that allows the in vivo imaging of several physiologic processes, depending on which tracer is used; for this reason PET has been applied, mainly for research purposes, to a large number of different diseases in both the clinical and preclinical setting. In the field of intensive care medicine most of the focus has been on acute lung injury (ALI) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
Application
Instrumentation
A PET scanner is basically constituted by a ring of detectors surrounding the patient. The imaging procedure requires the...
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References
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© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Bellani, G., Pesenti, A. (2012). Positron Emission Tomography. In: Vincent, JL., Hall, J.B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Intensive Care Medicine. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00418-6_731
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00418-6_731
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-00417-9
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