Physics in Nuclear Medicine

CHAPTER 1: What is Nuclear Medicine a. Fundamental Concepts b. The Power of Nuclear Medicine c. Historial Overview d. Current Practice of Nuclear Medicine e. The Role of Physics in Nuclear Medicine CHAPTER 2: Basic Atomic and Nuclear Physics a. Quantities and Units b. Radiation c. Atoms d. Nucleur CHAPTER 3: Modes of Radioiactive Decay a. General Concepts b. Chemistry and Radioactivity c. Decay by Emission d. Isomeric Transition and Internal Conversion e. Electron Capture and Decay f. Positron and Decay g. Competitive and EC Decay h. Decay by Emission and Nuclear Fission i. Decay Modes and the Line of Stability j. Sources of Information on Radionuclides CHAPTER 4: Decay of Radioactivity a. Activity b. Exponential Decay c. Methods for Determining Decay Factors d. Image-Frame Decay Corrections e. Specific Activity f. Decay of a Mixed Radionuclide Sample g. Parent-Daughter Decay CHAPTER 5: Isotope Production and Tracer Synthesis a. Reactor-Produced Radionuclides b. Accelerator-Produced Radionuclides c. Radionuclide Generators d. Equations for Radionuclide Production e. Radionuclides for Nuclear Medicine f. Radiiopharmaceuticals for Clinical Applications CHAPTER 6: Interaction of Radiation with Matter a. Interactions of Charged Particles with Matter b. Charged-Particle Ranges c. Passage of High-Energy Photons Through Matter d. Attenuation of Photon Beams CHAPTER 7: Radiation Detectors a. Gas-filled Detectors b. Semi-conductor Detectors c. Scintillation Detectors CHAPTER 8: Electronic Instrumentation for Radiation Detection a. Preamplifiers b. Amplifers c. Pulse-Height Analyzers d. Time-to-Amplitude Converters e. Digital Counters and Ratemeters f. Coincidence Units g. High-Voltage Power Supplies h. Nuclear Instrument Modules i. Cathode Ray Tube j. Oscilloscopes k. Computer Monitors CHAPTER 9: Nuclear Counting Statistics a. Types of Measurement Error b. Nuclear Counting Statistics c. Propagation of Errors d. Applications of Statistical Analysis e. Statistical Tests CHAPTER 10: Pulse Height Spectrometry a. Basic Principles b. Spectrometry with Nal c. Spectrometry with other Detectors CHAPTER 11: Problems in Radiation Detection and Measurement a. Detection Efficiency b. Problems in the Detection and Measurement of Particles c. Deadtime d. Qualtity Assurance for Radiation Measureme Systems CHAPTER 12: Counting Systems a. Nal Well Counter b. Counting with Conventional Nal Detectors c. Liquid Scintillation Counters d. Gas-filled Detectors e. Semiconductor Detector Systems f. In Vivo Counting Systems CHAPTER 13: The Gamma Camera: Basic Principles a. General Concepts of Radionuclide Imaging b. Basic Principles of the Anger Camera CHAPTER 14: Gamma Camera Performance Characteristics a. Basic Performance Characteristics b. Detector Limitations: Nonuniformity and Nonlinearit c. Design and Performance Characteristics of Parellel-Hole Collinators d. Performance Characteristics of Converging, Diverging and Pinhole Collimators e. Measurements of Camera Performance CHAPTER 15: Image Quality in Nuclear Medicine a. Basic Methods for Characterizing and Evaluating Image Quality b. Spatial Resolution c. Contrast d. Noise e. Detectability and Observer Performance Studies CHAPTER 16: Tomographic Reconstruction in Nuclear Medicine a. General Concepts, Notation and Terminology b. Backprojection and Fourier-Based Techniques c. Image Quality in FT and FBP Techniques d. Iterative Reconstruction Algorithms e. Reconstruction of Fan-Beam and Cone-Beam Data CHAPTER 17: Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography a. SPECT Systems b. Practical Implementation of SPECT c. Performance Characteristics of SPECT Systems d. Clinical Applications of SPECT CHAPTER 18: Positron Emission Tomography a. Annihilation Coincidence Detectioin b. PET Detector and Scanner Designs c. Dataa Acqusition for PET d. Data Corrections and Quantitative Aspects of PET e. Clinical and Research Applications of PET CHAPTER 19: Computers in Nuclear Medicine CHAPTER 20: Internal Radiation Dosimetry CHAPTER 22: Radiation Safety and Health Physics CHAPTER 23: Summary