The Evolution of PET-SCANs

A Brief History of PET Scanners

“Positron emission tomography (PET) is an imaging modality that was initially used for the study of brain function through the use of radioisotopes.”

The first PET scanners had a small number of radiation sensors to build the image, and they could do only a slice at a time. The slices were also very thick. Thus, the images obtained with the PET had a low quality and definition. It was impossible to get the finer details of localization of function in the brain, so their clinical usefulness was quite limited, as compared with modern models.

Steps in the Development of PET Scanners:

“During the late 1960s and the early 1970s, John_Mallard’s remarkable research group at the University of Aberdeen introduced their version of an emission tomograph (figure 2) that used discrete scintillation detectors, the Aberdeen Section Scanner (ASS) (Bowley et al 1973).
Also, during this period, Patten, Brill and their colleagues developed a novel scanner (figure 3) that used a scanning array of eight focusing detectors to obtain sectional images (Patton et al 1969). Their investigations influenced the multiple detector tomograph that was developed by
Stoddart and Stoddart (19″

Pioneers in the Development of PET Scanners:

“The origin of SPECT can be found in the groundbreaking experiments on emission tomography performed approximately 50 years ago by David Kuhl and Roy Edwards”

“Fundamental pre-SPECT instrumentation developments In the early days of nuclear medicine, scans were performed by manually positioning a simple Geiger counter (Geiger and Walther 1928) above the organ of interest. An improvement in
sensitivity came with the development of the scintillation detector and scanner (Cassen et al 1951, 1950). A major breakthrough followed with the invention of the Anger scintillation camera (Anger 1958, 1964). The Anger camera viewed the entire organ of interest at one time; thus, it provided a marked improvement in gamma ray detection efficiency.”

“Crandall and Cassen developed a longitudinal tomographic scanner that used a highly focusing collimator placed on a large crystal-matrix detector (Crandall and Cassen 1966). In 1969, Anger invented a sophisticated longitudinal tomograph that used a scanning scintillation camera (Anger 1969)”

Paul Harper and colleagues at the University of Chicago were the first investigators to explore the use an Anger camera for transaxial tomography (Harper et al 1965). I

Gerd Muehllehner described a longitudinal tomographic approach that used a rotating slant-hole collimator (Muehllehner 1970, 1971).69).

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The History and Evolution of PET

[Raghu Kishore Galla: PET scan in cardiology]

Existence of positrons first postulated by Paul Dirac in 1928.

First observed in 1932 by Carl D. Anderson, who gave the positron its name.

The concept of emission and transmission tomography was introduced by David E. Kuhal and Roy Edwards in the 1950s at the University of Pennsylvania.

In the 1970’s Tatsuo Ido at the Brookhaven National laboratory was the first to describe the synthesis of 18-FFDG, the most commonly used PET-scanning isotope carrier.

PET scan in cardiology

The early years of single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT): an anthology of selected reminiscences