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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2010 Oct 5.
Published in final edited form as: IEEE Trans Magn. 2010 Jul 1;46(7):2523–2558. doi: 10.1109/TMAG.2010.2046907

TABLE II.

A: Comparison of Different Biomedical Imaging Methods (Modified From Massoud and Gambhir [16])

Radiation Used Spatial Resolution Temporal Resolution Sensitivity Quantity of contrast agent used Summary / Comments
Positron Emission Tomography (PET) High Enery γ-rays 1-2 mm 10sec to minutes 10-11-10-12 Mole/L Nanograms Sensitive Quantitative Needs cyclotron
Single Photon Emission Tomography Low Energy γ-rays 1-2 mm minutes 10-10-10-11 Mole/L Nanograms Many available probes
Computed Tomography X- rays 50-200 μm minutes Not well characterized Not Applicable Good for bone, tumor but nor for soft tissues
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Radiowaves 25-100μm Minutes to hours 10-3-10-5 Mole/L Micrograms to Milligrams Highest resolution; Morphological and functional imaging Low sensitivity Slow
Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI) Radiowaves 200-500 μm Seconds to minutes 10-11-10-12 Mole/L Nanograms Quantitative Good sensitivity Fast Good resolution No tissue contrast