Pictorial review of SPECT/CT imaging applications in clinical nuclear medicine.

Integrated SPECT/CT scanners are gaining popularity as hybrid molecular imaging devices which can acquire SPECT and CT in a single exam. CT can be a low dose non-contrast enhanced scan for attenuation correction and anatomical localization, or a contrast enhanced diagnostic quality scan for additional anatomical characterization. We present a pictorial review highlighting the usefulness of this emerging technology. We present SPECT/CT images of 13 patients where additional information was provided by the co-registered low dose non-contrast enhanced CT scan. They belong to 12 male and 1 female patients with age ranging from 28 to 76 yrs, who were referred to the Nuclear Medicine Department for various indications. We describe these cases under in the following categories: bone scintigraphy (2), leukocyte scintigraphy (2), nuclear oncology (5), nuclear cardiology (1), and general nuclear medicine (3). Additional information provided by the co-registered low dose CT improves the diagnostic confidence in image interpretation of SPECT imaging.