Nuclear Medicine Physics: Review of Advanced Technology

Abstract

This review aims to provide a brief, comprehensive overview of advanced technologies of nuclear medicine physics, with a focus on recent developments from both hardware and software perspectives. Developments in image acquisition/reconstruction, especially the time-of-flight and point spread function, have potential advantages in the image signal-to-noise ratio and spatial resolution. Modern detector materials and devices (including lutetium oxyorthosilicate, cadmium zinc tellurium, and silicon photomultiplier) as well as modern nuclear medicine imaging systems (including positron emission tomography [PET]/computerized tomography [CT], whole-body PET, PET/magnetic resonance [MR], and digital PET) enable not only high-quality digital image acquisition, but also subsequent image processing, including image reconstruction and postreconstruction methods. Moreover, theranostics in nuclear medicine extend the usefulness of nuclear medicine physics far more than quantitative image-based diagnosis, playing a key role in personalized/precision medicine by raising the importance of internal radiation dosimetry in nuclear medicine. Now that deep-learning-based image processing can be incorporated in nuclear medicine image acquisition/processing, the aforementioned fields of nuclear medicine physics face the new era of Industry 4.0. Ongoing technological developments in nuclear medicine physics are leading to enhanced image quality and decreased radiation exposure as well as quantitative and personalized healthcare.

Emulsion Technology in Nuclear Medicine: Targeted Radionuclide Therapies, Radiosensitizers, and Imaging Agents

“…However, they are now routinely used in clinical practice for diagnosis, prognosis, and prediction of various diseases, especially in oncology, 1 , 2 cardiology, 3 , 4 neurology, 5 and infectious and inflammatory disorders. 6 This change can be attributed to advances in nuclear imaging technologies for improving image quality and spatial resolution, 7 as well as the development of more economically feasible ways of preparing and measuring radiopharmaceuticals. 8 Furthermore, traditional radionuclides such as technetium-99m (Tc-99m), iodine-131 (I-131), and fluorine-18 (F-18) have now been complemented with newly approved ones, ranging from alpha (α), beta (β-), or Auger electron-emitting radionuclides such as actinium-225 (Ac-225), lutetium-177 (Lu-177), copper-67 (Cu-67), to positron (β+) or gamma (γ)-emitting radionuclides such as Cu-64, zirconium-89 (Zr-89), and I-123.…”

Estimation of Nuclear Medicine Exposure Measures Based on Intelligent Computer Processing

“…The most widely used in clinical nuclear medicine are single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, which mainly detects gamma rays emitted by radionuclides introduced into the human body and obtains in vivo images, with functional imaging as the main feature, mainly used for metabolic imaging, tumor diagnosis, etc. As our concept of elementary particles continues to change, our understanding of the fundamental forces of nature and the interactions between elementary particles is also evolving [ 3 ]. In the process of the gradual deepening of human understanding of the material world, experimental methods and tools have also been gradually improved [ 4 ].…”