Positron Emission Tomography ( PET ) Imaging in Live Animals

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a highly sensitive noninvasive functional imaging technology that is ideally suited for monitoring the molecular biological processes in the course of diseases in vivo. This chapter introduces the basic theory of PET imaging and the applications of PET imaging in small animal research. PET imaging is a distribution map of the positron-emitting radioisotope-labeled molecules in vivo. Thus, an imaging tracer is essential for PET imaging. PET perfusion imaging allows accurate measurement of perfusion, absolute blood flow, and function of organs, such as the heart and brains. For myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI), it has been widely used in clinical studies and is considered the gold standard of myocardial ischemia diagnosis. Small-animal PET has been used to study cardiac physiology, metabolism, and conditions similar to those in human and large-animal cardiac investigations.