Radiation Detectors for Medical Imaging

Chapter 8

Radiation Detection in SPECT and PET

Chin-Tu Chen and Chien-Min Kao

8.1 Introduction

The 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Henri Becquerel for his discovery of spontaneous radioactivity (Becquerel 1896) and to Pierre and Marie Curie for their research on radiation phenomena leading to the discovery of radium and polonium (Currie et al. 1898). The 1943 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to George de Hevesy for his long-time work on the use of isotopes as tracers that he first proposed three decades earlier (de Hevesy 1913). These two monumental achievements in science paved the way to the creation and expansion of the field of nuclear medicine, which has benefitted millions in health and disease.

Nuclear medicine imaging ...