PET / CT Scan

PET/ CT - Positron Emission Tomography / CT

Positron emission tomography, also called PET imaging or a PET scan, is a type of nuclear medicine imaging. PET scans measure the metabolic activity of cells in the human body and is used in patients with certain conditions affecting the brain and the heart, as well as in patients with certain types of cancer. PET is unique because it produces images of the body's basic biochemistry or function and can detect changes or abnormalities, which may indicate that a person has certain diseases.

At UCSF, PET technology is combined with computed tomography (CT), thereby increasing diagnostic accuracy and specificity by allowing the information from two different studies to be correlated and interpreted on one image. Fusing PET and CT images results in a more comprehensive anatomic and metabolic visualization of disease sites throughout the body. PET/CT is a service available to patients for diagnosis, staging, restaging, and monitoring response to treatment for an increasing number of cancers.