Cherry SR, Sorenson JA, Phelps ME. Physics in Nuclear Medicine. Fourth Ed. Elsevier Saunders; 2012; 544 pages; $124.00.
The fourth edition of Physics in Nuclear Medicine is a comprehensive textbook that provides an introduction to the principles of physics, instrumentation, and imaging in nuclear medicine. This edition has been revised and expanded to include discussions and updated information on new imaging technologies and recent advancements, primarily in the areas of hybrid modalities SPECT/CT, PET/CT, and PET/MR, including small animal imaging. This fourth edition of the book incorporates also for the first time the use of color, which, overall, enhances aesthetically the organizational layout and improves the clarity and understanding of illustrative figures and tables.
The book comprises 23 chapters and 7 appendices spanning approximately 500 pages. The first chapter, which serves as an introduction to the fundamental concepts of nuclear medicine and the role of physics in the field, also provides a historical overview and addresses the current practice of nuclear medicine. Chapter 2 defines radiation and covers the basic atomic and nuclear physics. Chapter 3 describes the various modes of radioactive decay, while Chapter 4 presents the mathematical aspects of radioactive decay, such as units of activity, decay factors, and the half-life of a radioisotope. Chapter 5 covers radionuclide production methods, such as nuclear reactor, cyclotron, or generator-based systems, and describes also methods for labeling various radiopharmaceuticals. Chapter 6 discusses in sufficient detail the different mechanisms by which particulate radiation versus electromagnetic radiation interact with matter and explains very important aspects of nuclear medicine imaging, such as photoelectric effect, Compton scattering, and photon attenuation. Chapters 7 and 8 transition into the more practical aspects of radiation detection and the electronic instrumentation employed by describing the operation of gas-filled detectors, semiconductors, and scintillation detectors with their associated electronics (photomultiplier tubes, photodiodes, amplifiers, pulse-height analyzers, etc.). Chapter 9 discusses counting statistics and the various types of measurement errors involved in nuclear medicine procedures. Chapters 10 and 11 describe issues related to radiation measurement and detection systems, such as pulse-height (energy) spectrometry, detector efficiency, and dead-time, while Chapter 12 discusses specific types of systems used in vivo and in vitro, such as well counter and dose calibrator.
The most important nuclear medicine imaging device, the Gamma camera (Anger scintillation camera) — its design, system components, and operation — are presented in Chapter 13, followed by performance characteristics (spatial resolution, detection efficiency, energy resolution, etc.) in Chapter 14, along with a description of the various types of collimators with their specific design features and their effect on imaging. Issues related to image quality, such as contrast and noise, are addressed in Chapter 15. Chapter 16 introduces tomographic imaging and describes reconstruction techniques like the classic filtered back-projection, more advanced iterative reconstruction methods, and other specialized types of reconstruction for collimator-specific SPECT and 3D PET. Instrumentation and imaging for SPECT, including recent designs and small animal systems, along with clinical applications, are described in Chapter 17. PET is discussed in Chapter 18, which starts by describing the principle of annihilation coincidence detection and relevant theoretical concepts such as time-of-flight and positron physics, and then presents design and operational characteristics of PET detectors and types of PET scanners in addition to mentioning clinical applications. Chapter 19, newly introduced to this edition of the text, deals with hybrid imaging systems SPECT/CT and PET/CT, and provides also an introduction to the basic physics and instrumentation of x-ray CT, which is used in the hybrid systems for morphological localization through image fusion, and also to provide corrections for photon attenuation and scatter. At the end of this chapter there is a brief section on hybrid PET/MRI and SPECT/MRI that describes the technological challenges in integrating those systems. Digital image processing basic principles and their application to nuclear medicine images for analysis, processing, and manipulation are covered in Chapter 20, while tracer kinetic modeling and its application to nuclear medicine dynamic imaging are described in Chapter 21. Chapter 22 covers internal radiation dosimetry with units and quantities involved with radiation dose, while the final Chapter 23 discusses radiation safety and health physics as it applies to personnel who are exposed to radiation in their work environment, including regulations pertaining to the use and safe handling of radionuclides.
All the chapters in the book are well written with accurate information; they effectively cover the subject, and the organizational presentation of the material is logical and meaningful. An adequate amount of sample problems with solutions are included throughout the book, enhancing the understanding of concepts and establishing its character as a textbook. The chapters include at the end a brief reference list, and most of them also contain selected bibliography for additional reading as well as more detailed information. The figures, tables, and images are illustrative and of good quality, with suitably descriptive legends. The book concludes with 7 appendices, of which I found appendices A through E particularly useful, listing unit conversions from SI to traditional; properties of the naturally occurring elements; decay characteristics of some important radionuclides; mass attenuation coefficients of water and selected materials, such as NaI(Tl); and radiation dose estimates from administered radiopharmaceuticals. Appendices G and F cover the Fourier Transform and Convolution Theorem, respectively, both relevant to reconstruction algorithms employed in nuclear medicine tomography.
New in this fourth edition is the online version of the book, which is complete and very functional; especially interesting are the 17 animations of processes, such as characteristic x-ray generation, photoelectric effect, gamma camera operation, etc., which can be powerful learning and teaching tools. Another useful online feature is the calculators and graphs feature that can be used for conversion of units and calculation of quantities, such as radioactive decay and transmission of photons through an absorber.
Overall, this book is an excellent introductory textbook that successfully covers the principles of physics, instrumentation, and imaging in nuclear medicine. The book can serve as a useful reference and valuable resource for students, residents, medical physicists, technologists, radiologists, and other physicians who are practicing or interested in the field of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging.
