What is PET?

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a technique for measuring the concentrations of positron-emitting radioisotopes within the tissue of living subjects. These measurements are made outside of the living subjects. PET can be broken down into several steps:

(1) label a selected compound with a positron- emitting radionuclide

(2) administer this compound to the subject of study

(3) image the distribution of the positron activity as a function of time by emission tomography

(4) elicit, through the application of a suitable model, from the information thus acquired an understanding of the biological handling of the compound. [1]

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