MCCCD Program Description

Nuclear Medicine PET Physics and Instrumentation

Course: NUC280

First Term: 2021 Spring

Lecture 3.0 Credit(s) 3.0 Period(s) 3.0 Load
Subject Type: Occupational
Load Formula: S - Standard Load

Description: Principles of safe operation for positron emission tomography (PET) systems and required quality control.

MCCCD Official Course Competencies
1. Identify the components of and explain the principles, operation, and quality control of non-imaging and imaging equipment for acquisition and processing with positron emission tomography (PET) and hybrid imaging with PET, and related non-imaging detector systems. (I, IV, V) 2. Explain requirements for radiation protection specific to PET and PET/hybrid. (II, III) 3. Describe the physics of positron decay and coincidence detection. (III) 4. Correlate counting statistics to procedure quality. (IV) 5. Critique attenuation correction methods in PET imaging. (V)
MCCCD Official Course Competencies must be coordinated with the content outline so that each major point in the outline serves one or more competencies. MCCCD faculty retains authority in determining the pedagogical approach, methodology, content sequencing, and assessment metrics for student work. Please see individual course syllabi for additional information, including specific course requirements.

MCCCD Official Course Outline
I. Instrumentation of imaging and non-imaging equipment A. Imaging equipment B. Non-imaging equipment II. Radiation protection for PET and PET/hybrid A. Positron emission B. High-energy photons C. CT/x-ray production III. Physics of coincidence detection A. Positron emission and annihilation B. Scintillation detection in PET IV. Image quality and equipment quality control A. Non-imaging equipment B. PET C. Counting statistics V. Data display and fusion imaging A. Standard image display B. Image fusion C. Standard uptake values (SUV) D. Attenuation correction (AC) E. Time of flight (TOF) imaging

MCCCD Governing Board Approval Date: June 23, 2020

All information published is subject to change without notice. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information presented, but based on the dynamic nature of the curricular process, course and program information is subject to change in order to reflect the most current information available.