Robson, Robert E., and White, Ronald D. (2012) Why antimatter matters (especially for PET). In: Preserving the Humboldt tradition of scholarship in Australasia: proceedings of the fourteenth Biennial Conference of the Australian Association of von Humboldt fellows. pp. 69-74. From: Fourteenth Biennial Conference of the Australian Association of von Humboldt Fellows, 30 September - 2 October 2011, Randwick, NSW, Australia.

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Abstract

[Extract] In positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, a radiopharmaceutical injected into the body preferentially seeks abnormalities (e.g., regions of high metabolic activity), where high energy anti-matter particles called positrons are emitted. These positrons then slow down and annihilate with electrons in the body tissue, producing two back-to-back gamma rays with directions governed by Newton's laws. and energies prescribed by Einstein's mass-energy equivalence relation, E=mc². The gamma radiation is used to form an image of the abnormality but, since the points of emission of the positron and the gamma rays respectively are displaces, the image is blurred. In order to come to terms with this fundamental limitation on resolution of PET, it is necessary to model the physics of positrons in soft biological tissue using the methods of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, and incorporating recently measured positron-molecule scattering cross sections.

Item ID:	24220
Item Type:	Conference Item (Research - E1)
ISBN:	978-0-9588149-2-8
Related URLs:	Publisher
Date Deposited:	14 Dec 2012 05:22
FoR Codes:	02 PHYSICAL SCIENCES > 0202 Atomic, Molecular, Nuclear, Particle and Plasma Physics > 020201 Atomic and Molecular Physics @ 70% 02 PHYSICAL SCIENCES > 0299 Other Physical Sciences > 029903 Medical Physics @ 30%
SEO Codes:	97 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 970102 Expanding Knowledge in the Physical Sciences @ 100%
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