Benefits of Time - of - flight Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography with 13 N - ammonia

Noninvasive quantification of regional myocardial blood flow (MBF) and coronary flow reserve (CFR) by myocardial perfusion positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) imaging is wellestablished and has additional diagnostic value over traditional visual analysis. A growing need for high sensitivity and high spatial resolution capable of assessing smaller targets with shorter acquisition time has led to technical advancements. These include whole-body imaging, 3-dimensional (3D) mode acquisition, application of new scintillator materials, and iterative reconstruction algorithms. Among these advancements, the combination of 3D mode acquisition and time-of-flight (TOF) technology has played an important role in clinical oncology PET/CT studies. In this review, I summarized studies that have focused on the use of TOF PET/CT with 13 Nammonia ( 13 N-NH3). Compared with conventional PET acquisition, the combination of 3D mode acquisition and the TOF imaging can improve noise and image quality in 13 N-NH3 perfusion imaging. As a result, it yields high reproducibility and accurate measurement of CFR.