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
. 2025 Jan;55(1):11-20.
doi: 10.1053/j.semnuclmed.2024.07.003. Epub 2024 Sep 17.

Total-Body PET/CT: Pros and Cons

Rodney J Hicks  1 , Robert E Ware  2 , Jason Callahan  2
Affiliations
Free article
Review

Total-Body PET/CT: Pros and Cons

Rodney J Hicks et al. Semin Nucl Med. 2025 Jan.
Free article

Abstract

PET/CT devices with an axial field-of-view (FOV) of 1 m allow simultaneous imaging from the head to the upper thighs, the typical axial extent of many "whole-body" oncological studies acquired by moving a patient sequentially through a conventional FOV device, or rapid total-body imaging using the same approach. Increasing the FOV to around 2 m provides true simultaneous total-body imaging. Either approach dramatically increases the sensitivity for detection of annihilation events arising within the body. For the purposes of this review, both configurations are considered to represent "total-body" PET/CT devices because they share both advantages and disadvantages. These pros and cons are discussed in the context of both clinical and research applications from a patient and institutional perspective.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest RJH is the founder and major shareholder of PreMIT Pty Ltd and Precision Molecular Imaging and Theranostics Pty Ltd, which are involved in developing novel theranostic agents and have a collaborative research agreement with Siemens Healthineers. He is also an advisor to GE Medical Systems and a shareholder and Scientific Advisor to Telix Pharmaceuticals. REW is a director and shareholder in Cyclotek Australia Pty Ltd, which is a commercial supplier of PET radiopharmaceuticals in Australia. He is also a shareholder in PreMIT Pty Ltd and Precision Molecular Imaging and Theranostics Pty Ltd. JC has no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources