The book provides the comprehensive physics information demanded in the clinical practice of diagnostic nuclear medicine. It addresses the clinical requirements of the scientist, physician and technologist by providing an overview of the discipline in four subject areas: radiation; detection and display; clinical procedures; and quality assurances. Topics discussed include radioactivity, radiopharmaceuticals, radiation protection, radiation detection, non-imaging systems, planar, tomographic and coincidence imaging systems, and display, hardcopy and evaluation of images. Each topic starts from a clinical issue and then explores the underlying physical principles to demonstrate the constraints imposed on, and the potential for optimization of, the diagnostic information.

Part I: Radiation: Radioactivity. Radiopharmaceuticals. Biological Effects of Radiation. Protection of the Community; Protection of the Patient.- Part II: Detection Systems: Radiation Detection. Non-Imaging. Single Photon Planar Imaging. Single Photon Tomographic Imaging. Dual Photon Imaging. Display. Computers and Communications.- Part III: Clinical Procedures: Non-Imaging Studies. Single Photon Planar Imaging. Single Photon Tomographic Imaging. Dual Photon Imaging. Image Processing and Analysis.- Part IV: Quality Assurance: Quality Assurance. Radiopharmaceutical. Non-Imaging. Single Photon Planar Imaging. Single Photon Tomographic Imaging. Dual Photon Imaging. Display. Computer.- Part V: Appendices: Radionuclide Decay Characteristics; SI Units; Collimator Details; GFR Single Sample Equitations; Typical Acquisition and Processing Protocols for Single Photon Investigations.