Computed tomography

Classification

• X-ray computerized tomography. This is defined as "tomography using x-ray transmission and a computer algorithm to reconstruct the image."
• Emission Computed Tomography. This is defined as "tomography using radioactive emissions from injected radionuclides and computer algorithms to reconstruct an image".
• Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon (SPECT) is defined as "A method of computed tomography that uses radionuclides which emit a single photon of a given energy. The camera is rotated 180 or 360 degrees around the patient to capture images at multiple positions along the arc. The computer is then used to reconstruct the transaxial, sagittal, and coronal images from the 3-dimensional distribution of radionuclides in the organ. The advantages of SPECT are that it can be used to observe biochemical and physiological processes as well as size and volume of the organ. The disadvantage is that, unlike positron-emission tomography where the positron-electron annihilation results in the emission of 2 photons at 180 degrees from each other, SPECT requires physical collimation to line up the photons, which results in the loss of many available photons and hence degrades the image".