Biological research has been accelerated by the development of noninvasive imaging techniques and by use of genetically engineered mice to model human diseases and normal development. Because these mice can be expensive, noninvasive imaging techniques, such as high-resolution positron emission tomography (PET), that permit longitudinal studies of the same animals are very attractive. Such studies reduce the number of animals used, reduce intersubject variability, and improve the accuracy of biological models. PET provides quantitative measurements of the spatiotemporal distribution of radiotracers and is an extremely powerful tool in using molecular imaging to study biology, to monitor disease intervention, and to establish pharmacokinetics for new drugs. The design of animal PET scanners has improved significantly in the past decade and can provide adequate image resolution and sensitivity to study transgenic mice. This article reviews the fundamental and technical challenges of small-animal PET imaging, with a particular focus on the latest developments and future directions of detector technologies and system design.

中文翻译：

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动物PET的仪器方面。

通过非侵入性成像技术的发展以及通过使用基因工程小鼠为人类疾病和正常发育建模的方法，生物学研究得到了加速。由于这些小鼠可能很昂贵，因此允许对同一动物进行纵向研究的非侵入性成像技术（例如高分辨率正电子发射断层扫描（PET））非常有吸引力。这些研究减少了使用的动物数量，减少了受试者间的变异性，并提高了生物学模型的准确性。PET提供了放射性示踪剂的时空分布的定量测量，并且是使用分子成像研究生物学，监测疾病干预和建立新药药代动力学的极其强大的工具。在过去的十年中，动物PET扫描仪的设计有了显着改善，可以提供足够的图像分辨率和灵敏度来研究转基因小鼠。本文回顾了小动物PET成像的基本和技术挑战，特别关注检测器技术和系统设计的最新发展和未来方向。