Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2016 Dec;23(6):1343-1347.
doi: 10.1007/s12350-016-0498-z. Epub 2016 Apr 12.

Instrumentation in molecular imaging

R Glenn Wells  1
Affiliations
Review

Instrumentation in molecular imaging

R Glenn Wells. J Nucl Cardiol. 2016 Dec.

Abstract

In vivo molecular imaging is a challenging task and no single type of imaging system provides an ideal solution. Nuclear medicine techniques like SPECT and PET provide excellent sensitivity but have poor spatial resolution. Optical imaging has excellent sensitivity and spatial resolution, but light photons interact strongly with tissues and so only small animals and targets near the surface can be accurately visualized. CT and MRI have exquisite spatial resolution, but greatly reduced sensitivity. To overcome the limitations of individual modalities, molecular imaging systems often combine individual cameras together, for example, merging nuclear medicine cameras with CT or MRI to allow the visualization of molecular processes with both high sensitivity and high spatial resolution.

Keywords: Molecular imaging; instrumentation PET; instrumentation SPECT; optical imaging.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Nat Biotechnol. 2005 Mar;23(3):313-20 - PubMed
    1. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2005 Dec;32 Suppl 2:S325-45 - PubMed
    1. J Nucl Cardiol. 2009 Mar-Apr;16(2):255-76 - PubMed
    1. Curr Pharm Biotechnol. 2012 Mar;13(4):504-22 - PubMed

MeSH terms

Substances