[Christine Runyon: The History of the PET-CT Scanner]
“The PET scanner was introduced in the early 1960’s, and the CT scanner introduced in the early 1970’s. It wasn’t until the 90’s, however, that the idea to combine to two for even better image quality was considered.”
1972 – First CT scanner
1973 – First PET camera
1975 – First commercial PET scanner
1977 – First whole-body PET scanner
” The creation of the hybrid positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) scanner by Ronald Nutt and David W. Townsend revolutionized diagnostic medical imaging and has enabled earlier detection of cancer and better monitoring of treatment efficacy. Introduced in 1999, the PET/CT scanner incorporates the individual strengths of existing CT and PET technology while overcoming their respective stand-alone limitations. The hybrid PET/CT scanner provides precise spatial registration of anatomy and function in a single diagnostic imaging examination. The original idea for the PET/CT scanner came when Drs. Nutt and Townsend, while working together on a PET scanner design, recognized the opportunity for integrating CT components into the gantry of an existing PET design.”
https://www.ieee.org/about/awards/bios/healthcare-recipients.html
Since 2001, essentially all PET scanners are physically combined with an anatomical imaging device such as a CT or, from 2010, an MR scanner. The second modality not only provides a high spatial resolution anatomical framework that is accurately coregistered with the functional PET image, but also can be used to improve the quality of the PET image. Historically, the development of clinical PET/CT occurred in the mid-1990s, around the time when the concept of preclinical PET/MR was being explored. Subsequently, clinical PET/CT translated into a preclinical PET/CT device while, sometime later, the preclinical PET/MR designs became a reality in the clinical domain
REFERENCES:
. History of the PET/CT Scanner
https://www.amberusa.com/blog/the-history-of-the-pet-ct-scanner/
https://www.itnonline.com/article/imaging-evolution-hybrid-petct-scans
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5374360/
https://ethw.org/David_Townsend
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2777694/
http://vol45-issue5-p023-e.pdf
https://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/45/1_suppl/4s
https://www.itnonline.com/article/imaging-evolution-hybrid-petct-scans
https://smartteleradiology.com/blog/history-and-indications-of-PET/CT-scan