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Table 4 The history of PET

From: The contribution of medical physics to nuclear medicine: a physician's perspective

1951

First use of NaI probes for positron detection in brain

William Sweet and Gordon Brownell

1963

First description of radon equations for image reconstruction

Alan M. Cormack

1973

Description of CT scanner

Godfrey N. Hounsfield

 

First PET tomograph

Michael E. Phelps

1976

First commercial PET scanner

 

1978

First BGO-based scanner

Chris Thompson

1977

14C Deoxyglucose

Louis Sokoloff

1978

18F Fluorodeoxyglucose

Tatsuo Ido

1986

Present synthesis of FDG

Kurt Hamacher

1984

Commercial cyclotron development

 

1997

FDA approves FDG as radiopharmaceutical

 

1998

PET/CT prototype

David Townsend and Ron Nutt

1999

Lutetium orthosilicate (LSO)

 

1999

Medicare reimburses for staging NSCLC, SPN, colorectal ca, HD and NHD, melanoma, hibernating myocardium and TLE

 

2001

PET/CT in UK at INM/UCL

 

2002

Health technology assessments (HTA) begin

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