DefinePK

Abstract

Over the last three decades, Rhenium-188 (188Re) applications in Nuclear Medicine therapies have gathered a lot of interest thanks to the favorable physical and chemical characteristics of this isotope. In order to optimize 188Re therapies, the accurate knowledge of the activity distribution within the patient body is required. To this end, the nuclear medicine images must yield accurate quantitative measurements. However, the decay of 188Re results in a large variety of emissions such as β-particles, γ-particles and Bremsstrahlung, making quantitative measurements of 188Re activity a very difficult task. In this paper, we discuss the imaging protocols, data acquisitions, techniques used in image reconstruction and processing, and dose estimation methods required for accurate, image-based, personalized dosimetry for molecular therapies with 188Re.