Journal of nuclear medicine : official publication, Society of Nuclear Medicine
-
The advent of multimodality imaging scanners combining PET and CT has led to a new paradigm in image display and presentation that raises new challenges in workstation interpretation software, image navigation, and communication. The essence of multimodality imaging is the ability to overlay imaging information from different modalities in a visually compelling fashion. This is accomplished by combining functional and anatomic data into multidimensional views using color-encoding techniques that provide visual clues on the spatial distribution of image data. ⋯ The wider adoption of multimodality PET/CT imaging techniques in routine clinical use will depend heavily on the development of more adequate image display and navigation tools that allow interpreting physicians to navigate easily and efficiently through multiple dimensions of data. Distribution of results to referring physicians and care providers also requires new tools for interactively reviewing the multimodality data, and current static images obtained from fused image data remain inadequate for proper visualization of the true content of images.