Research Update on Nuclear Medicine

A special issue of Diagnostics (ISSN 2075-4418). This special issue belongs to the section "Medical Imaging and Theranostics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2024 | Viewed by 645

Special Issue Editor


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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Nuclear medicine is a scientific field that, in recent years, has experienced expanding application and is constantly growing in terms of importance and extension. This particular branch of medicine is characterized by the ability to evaluate the metabolic behavior of different tissues, cells and organs and has demonstrated its usefulness for the assessment of a wide range of conditions. From a diagnostic point of view, its role in the diagnosis, evaluation of response to treatment, follow-up and ability to drive the therapeutic approach of different diseases has been proven in many different papers. Interestingly, new tracers able to analyze different metabolic pathways, and therefore to shape new fields of research, are constantly being produced and need to prove their value. In addition, texture analysis, radiomics and machine learning are new scientific tools that are changing nuclear medicine and the methods of imaging analysis in general. Moreover, radionuclide therapy is experiencing an increase in its application and new research highlighting its role in the management of different diseases and the development of new therapeutic agents is being published almost every day.

The aim of this Special Issue is, therefore, to collect research that aims to investigate new findings in the nuclear medicine field in both diagnostic and therapeutic settings.

Dr. Francesco Dondi
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at mdpi.longhoe.net by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Diagnostics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • nuclear medicine
  • diagnostic radiology
  • PET/CT
  • SPECT
  • PET
  • imaging

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

20 pages, 1652 KiB  
Review
Technological Advances in SPECT and SPECT/CT Imaging
by Yassine Bouchareb, Afrah AlSaadi, Jawa Zabah, Anjali Jain, Aziza Al-Jabri, Peter Phiri, Jian Qing Shi, Gayathri Delanerolle and Srinivasa Rao Sirasanagandla
Diagnostics 2024, 14(13), 1431; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics14131431 - 4 Jul 2024
Viewed by 346
Abstract
Single photon emission tomography/computed tomography (SPECT/CT) is a mature imaging technology with a dynamic role in the diagnosis and monitoring of a wide array of diseases. This paper reviews the technological advances, clinical impact, and future directions of SPECT and SPECT/CT imaging. The [...] Read more.
Single photon emission tomography/computed tomography (SPECT/CT) is a mature imaging technology with a dynamic role in the diagnosis and monitoring of a wide array of diseases. This paper reviews the technological advances, clinical impact, and future directions of SPECT and SPECT/CT imaging. The focus of this review is on signal amplifier devices, detector materials, camera head and collimator designs, image reconstruction techniques, and quantitative methods. Bulky photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) are being replaced by position-sensitive PMTs (PSPMTs), avalanche photodiodes (APDs), and silicon PMs to achieve higher detection efficiency and improved energy resolution and spatial resolution. Most recently, new SPECT cameras have been designed for cardiac imaging. The new design involves using specialised collimators in conjunction with conventional sodium iodide detectors (NaI(Tl)) or an L-shaped camera head, which utilises semiconductor detector materials such as CdZnTe (CZT: cadmium–zinc–telluride). The clinical benefits of the new design include shorter scanning times, improved image quality, enhanced patient comfort, reduced claustrophobic effects, and decreased overall size, particularly in specialised clinical centres. These noticeable improvements are also attributed to the implementation of resolution-recovery iterative reconstructions. Immense efforts have been made to establish SPECT and SPECT/CT imaging as quantitative tools by incorporating camera-specific modelling. Moreover, this review includes clinical examples in oncology, neurology, cardiology, musculoskeletal, and infection, demonstrating the impact of these advancements on clinical practice in radiology and molecular imaging departments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research Update on Nuclear Medicine)
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