Molecular Imaging: Single Photo Emission

SPECT or SPET is an imaging technique that uses tomography imaging and the help of nuclear medicine in the shape of gamma rays to look at the soft tissues of the patient. This is quite the same method, which is used in planar imaging in nuclear medicine, which is conventional and uses gamma cameras. Single photon emission computed tomography is capable of showing a three-dimensional image and information of the patient. Every single information is shown in a three-dimensional image and cross-sectional form and slices. A radiologist can easily reformat these cross-sections and slices to see different dimensional information that he needs to check up.

An x-ray is two-dimensional even though the body structure is three-dimensional. On the other hand, a gamma camera image is a two-dimensional view of a radionuclide distribution, which is also three-dimensional. These projections can be seen from different sides and angles. Reconstruction and tomography algorithms are then applied to these images, with the use of a computer to get a data set that is three-dimensional.

This three-dimensional view can be seen upon any axis of the body. This is the same idea, which is being used in other techniques of tomography testing like CT, MRI and PET.

SPECT uses tracer material that is radioactive just like another testing system, which is known as PET. This system is normally used when a patient has been examined already with the help of a medical scan, but no diagnosis has been made from the images. The patient can be taken straight to a SPECT camera and checked again.