PET Scan

Positron Emission Tomography

A tomogram is a picture of a slice through something
A positron emitting chemical such as C 11 is injected

C 11 is made by bombarding N 14 with protons

 14 1 11 4
N + p C + He
7 1 6 2
The patient must lie very still as he/she is moved
through the scanner ring
A proton turns into a neutron emitting a positron

11 11 0

C 6
B 5
+ e+1
 +

11 11 0

C 6
B 5
+ e+1

Mass and charge are conserved (stay the same)

Other isotopes emit positrons e.g. Potassium 40,

Nitrogen 13, Oxygen 15, Fluorine 18, and Iodine 121.
Within a few millimeters the positron will hit an
electron. They will annihilate making 2 gamma rays.

0 0
e -
-1 + e +
1 2γ
This can be shown by a Feynman Diagram
 The patient lies inside a ring of detectors

Gamma rays cause scintillations

(flashes of light) in a crystal

These are detected after

being made brighter by a
photomultiplier
 Flash detectors
Patient

A picture is built up from all the individual parts

Photomultipliers
The system
Normal PET scans
Cell Lung Cancer Multiple Myeloma
PET scan of
the brain
A computer can store
all the slice images

It can put them together

to make a 3D PET scan
of the body