what is a positron emission tomography?

POSITRON EMISSIONS

TOMOGRAPHY

PET SCAN

What is a Pet Scan?

• Nuclear 3-D imaging test that uses a radioactive substance called a tracer to look for disease in the body.

• Shows how organs and tissues are working at a molecular and cellular level. Scan is non-invasive, but does involve exposure to ionizing radiation.

• Best known for its role in detecting cancer imaging.

How Do Pet Scans work?

• A small amount of a radioactive sugar molecule, 18 fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (FDG), is injected into the bloodstream (can also be inhaled as gas or swallowed in pill form).

• A PET Scan is used to detect and generate images that indicate areas of high FDG uptake.

• Many cancers require more energy than normal cells, and the FDG tracer accumulates in these cells.

• This allows cancers to be seen on the Pet images as hot spots.

Pet scan of a patient showing wide spread of cancer metastasis.

A 61-year-old woman with metastasis of breast cancer to the left supraclavicular lymph node

Scan of a healthy child's brain.

Scan of an abused child’s brain

PET SCAN COMMON

USES

Conditions• Epilepsy• Alzheimer’s

Disease• Dementia• Cancer• Heart Disease• Medical Research

PET SCAN ADVANTAGES

• Unlike CT or MRI scans, PET scans can measure cellular-level metabolic changes occurring in an organ or tissue (early stage detection).

• CT’s and MRI’s cannot detect changes until the disease has already began to cause changes or damage in the structure of organs or tissues.

PATIENT COST & TIME $3,000

to $6,000

per scan

Takes 2 to 4 hours

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

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REFERENCES

Joseph, U. A. (June 01, 2012). Positron Emission Tomography. Journal of Nuclear Medicine, 53, 6, 1002-1003.

Kumar, R., Halanaik, D., & Malhotra, A. (January 01, 2010). Clinical applications of positron emission tomography-computed tomography in oncology. Indian Journal of Cancer, 47, 2.)

Politis, M., & Piccini, P. (January 01, 2012). Positron emission tomography imaging in neurological disorders. Journal of Neurology, 259, 9, 1769-80.

Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. (2014). Pet scans: Get the facts. Retrieved from: http://interactive.snm.org/index.cfm?PageID=7988

POSITRON EMISSIONS

TOMOGRAPHY

PET SCAN