title: Instrumentation in molecular imaging.
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.
authors.affiliation: H1233, Cardiac Imaging, University of Ottawa Heart Institute, 40 Ruskin St, Ottawa, ON, K1Y4W7, Canada. gwells@ottawaheart.ca.
authors.forename: R Glenn
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Wells
mesh_terms: D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation*; D057054:Molecular Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation*; D064847:Multimodal Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation*; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000295:instrumentation*; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D013673:Technology Assessment, Biomedical; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000295:instrumentation*
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals
keywords: Molecular imaging; instrumentation PET; instrumentation SPECT; optical imaging