Positron Emission Tomography: state of the art and future developments

Positron emission tomography (PET) plays a fundamental role in medical imaging, with a wide range of applications covering, among the others, oncology, neurology and cardiology. PET has undergone a steady technological evolution since its introduction in mid 20th century, from the development of 3D PET in the late 1980s, to the invention of PET/CT in the 1990s and more recently with the introduction of PET/MR scanners. The current research topics aiming to develop the next generation of PET scanners are summarized in this paper, focusing on the efforts to increase the sensitivity of the detectors, as long as improving their timing, spatial and energy resolutions, with the final goal of reducing the amount of radioactive dose received by the patients and the duration of the exams while improving at the same time the detectability of lesions.