RISE ON UP Volume

This volume has multi-faceted indications. In effect, it is a modified NM physics and instrumentation book. It has the unusual slant of being written by a practicing clinician, not a physicist, who has been deeply involved with instrumentation design over his career, and who essentially functions as both an engineer and a physicist. A brief review of radioisotopes, radioactive decay and detection is provided, with a very complete review of the design of the gamma camera. Special emphasis is made on collimator design and selection, since this is one of the few areas that the practitioner can vary in the field. Solid state detectors are discussed, and reconstruction techniques are reviewed.

The areas of SPECT and PET (plus /minus CT) are reviewed, including required QC.

Much of this book focuses on areas that are required knowledge for the infamous RISE EXAM. There is a “walk through the hot lab”, with review of all its equipment and the QC needed for all of these devices/functions. There is a section on receiving a radioactive package, labeling requirements and transport rules for radioactive materials, and how to handle a radioactive “spill”. I have tried to gather all the material needed for the RISE EXAM (and then some).

It is a book to be read differently based on the readers purpose. If read by a nuclear physician just for general knowledge, there is a chapter on the attempts in the 1990’s to use the standard gamma camera to image positrons and the brief historical phase of “hybrid coincidence-detecting” gamma camera. There is even a chapter on how to equip a nuclear medicine division (both controversial and not needed in the “core exam” prep.) The book tries to point out the areas that are not “core-pertinent” and it also includes a “highlight summary” at the end of each section.

Representative images / topics:

“Off-peak Imaging artifacts: