title: Small-animal PET: what is it, and why do we need it?
abstract: Small-animal PET refers to imaging of animals such as rats and mice using dedicated PET scanners. Small-animal PET has been used extensively in modern biomedical research. It provides a quantitative measure of the 3-dimensional distribution of a radiopharmaceutical administered to a live subject noninvasively. In this article, we will discuss the operational and technical aspects of small-animal PET; make some comparisons between small-animal PET and human PET systems; identify the challenges of, opportunities for, and ultimate limitations in applying small-animal PET; and discuss some representative small-animal PET applications. Education objectives: After reading this article, the technologist will be able to explain the requirements and benefits of small-animal PET in biomedical research, describe the design and general characteristics of a small-animal PET system, list and describe some of the challenges of imaging small animals, and discuss several small-animal PET applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York 14214, USA. rutaoyao@buffalo.edu
authors.forename: Rutao
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lecomte
authors.forename: Elpida S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Crawford
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000830:Animals, Laboratory; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000295:instrumentation; D049628:Body Size; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods / Q000662:veterinary*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity