TY - JOUR T1 - Small-Animal PET: What Is It, and Why Do We Need It? JF - Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology JO - J. Nucl. Med. Technol. SP - 157 LP - 165 DO - 10.2967/jnmt.111.098632 VL - 40 IS - 3 AU - Rutao Yao AU - Roger Lecomte AU - Elpida S. Crawford Y1 - 2012/09/01 UR - http://tech.snmjournals.org/content/40/3/157.abstract N2 - Small-animal PET refers to imaging of animals such as rats and mice using dedicated PET scanners. Small-animal PET has been used extensively in modern biomedical research. It provides a quantitative measure of the 3-dimensional distribution of a radiopharmaceutical administered to a live subject noninvasively. In this article, we will discuss the operational and technical aspects of small-animal PET; make some comparisons between small-animal PET and human PET systems; identify the challenges of, opportunities for, and ultimate limitations in applying small-animal PET; and discuss some representative small-animal PET applications. Education objectives: After reading this article, the technologist will be able to explain the requirements and benefits of small-animal PET in biomedical research, describe the design and general characteristics of a small-animal PET system, list and describe some of the challenges of imaging small animals, and discuss several small-animal PET applications. ER -