الفهرس 
SPECT/CT IMAGING SYSTEMOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The increasing availability of new hybrid SPECT/CT devices with
advanced technology offers the opportunity to shorten acquisition time and
to provide accurate attenuation correction and fusion imaging. In this work
we discussed the capabilities of SPECT/CT for improving sensitivity and
specificity in the imaging of many oncological tumors like brain tumors,
differentiated thyroid cancers, neuroendocrine tumors, malignant
lymphoma, metastatic bone disease, sentinel lymph nodes and other tumors.
On the other hand, it has been emphasized that in many practical uses
single photon emitting agents are not replaceable by PET
radiopharmaceuticals because of a variety of reasons, ranging from
logistical considerations (e.g. physical half-life, formal approval by
regulatory authorities and commercial availability) to patient-related
considerations (e.g. radiation burden, selectivity of biological targeting,
possibility to perform dynamic and dualradionuclide imaging); important
socio-economic considerations (with special reference to the vast majority of
the world population living in developing countries) must also be taken into
account.
It appears likely that combined SPECT/CT will be highly useful for
performing valid and clinically applicable dosimetry, for improving
treatment planning, and for ensuring safe and effective radionuclide
therapy.
Summarising, hybrid devices will play an increasing role in imaging
tumours with SPECT, i.e. for precise functional characterisation and staging
of disease during initial work-up, for detection of tumour tissue after
Conclusion and summary
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treament and its exact localisation inside a residual mass, for early
diagnosis of relapse, especially in the presence of inconclusive anatomical
studies, and for improvement of dosimetric estimation for targeted
radionuclide therapy