The NATO Advanced Study Institute (ASI) on Physics and Engineering of Medical Imaging has addressed a subject which in the wide area of biomedical technology is one of those which are showing greater impact in the practice of medicine for the ability to picture both Anatomy and Physiology. The information and accuracy obtained by whatever imaging methodology is a complex result of a multidisciplinary effort of several sciences such as Physics, Engineering, Electronics, Chemistry, Medicine, etc ... Development has occurred through work performed in different environments such as basic and applied research laboratories, industries and clinical centers, with the aim of achieving an efficient transfer of know-how and technology for the improvement of both investigation possibilities and health care. On one hand, such an effort requires an ever-increasing committment of human and financial resources at research and industrial level, and, on the other, it meets serious difficulties in recruiting the necessary human expertise oriented to this technology which breaks with the tradi tiona I academic borders of the single disciplines. Furthermore, the scientific community is continually dealing with the problem of increasing the performance and, at the same time, complexity and costs of instruments, applying more and more sophisticated technology in an effort to meet the demand for more complete and accurate clinical information. The scientific program of this ASI and the qualification of the authors reveals the intrinsic complexity of the development process of the Imaging methodologies.

Inhalt
Research: A Sound Investment in Effective Health Care.- I Basic Aspects of Medical Imaging.- A Short History of Modern Medical Imaging.- Image Analysis and the Method of Moments.- Strategies of Reconstruction Algorithms for Computerized Tomography.- Discussion Summary.- II Digital Radiology: Principles, Technology and Correlative Aspects with Nuclear Medicine.- Current Status of Digital Radiography.- Cardiovascular Imaging by Roentgen Television Computer Techniques.- Advanced Techniques for Digital Angiography of the Heart.- Cardiovascular Nuclear Medicine and Functional Imaging.- Digital Radiography and Nuclear Medicine: Correlative Aspects and Technological Cross-Fertilization.- Discussion Summary.- Digital Radiography Using the Individual Photon Counting Technique.- III X-Ray Computed Tomography.- Basic Technological Aspects and Optimization Problems in X-Ray Computed Tomography (C.T.).- Clinical Application of X-Ray CT: Results, Limitations and Future Needs.- Cine CT: a New Technology for Cardiac Computed Tomography.- Discussion Summary.- The Accurate 3-D Reconstruction of the Geometric Configuration of Vascular Trees from X-Ray Recordings.- Application of Computer-Tomography in Industrial Problems.- IV Ultrasound Imaging: Current Trends and Clinical Applications.- Basic Principles and Advanced Technological Aspects of Ultrasound Imaging.- Phased Array Acoustic Imaging Systems.- Ultrasounds in Cardiology: Recent Results, Limitations and Future Needs.- Advanced Applications of Ultrasound Imaging in Internal Medicine: Results, Limitations and Future Needs.- Future Directions in Ultrasound Imaging: a Critical Evaluation.- Discussion Summary.- High Resolution Medical Ultrasound: Applications in Rheumatology and Dermatology.- V General Problems I.- Digital Archiving of Medical Images.- VI General Problems II.- 3-D Display.- Quality Assurance in Medical Imaging.- Medical and Non-Medical Imaging: Cross-Fertilization.- Discussion Summary.- VII Other Imaging Modalities.- Current State, Limitations and New Perspectives in Functional Patterns Obtained by Infrared and Microwave Radiometry.- Biomagnetism: a Non-Invasive New Approach for Imaging of Bioelectrical Sources in the Human Body.- Possible Directions of Alternative Imaging Modalities: a Critical Overview.- Discussion Summary.- VIII Principles and Applications of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging.- Basic Principles of NMR Imaging.- Comparative Evaluation of NMR Imaging Techniques.- Clinical Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging.- Discussion Summary.- IX Applicative Problems and Future Directions of NMR for in Vivo Studies.- State of the Art Magnetic Resonance Imaging.- Discussion Summary.- X Nuclear Medicine Agents and Instrumentation.- Radiopharmaceuticals for In Vivo Diagnosis - Current Topics and Future Prospects.- Single Photon Imaging: State of the Art, Limitations and Future Needs.- Digital Imaging in Nuclear Medicine.- Discussion Summary.- Transient Changes in Renal Uptake Rate of 99mTc DMSA as Possible Indicators of Changes of Renal Function During Stress.- Optimization of Right Ventricular Ejection Fraction Measurements from First Pass and Gated Blood Pool Scintigraphy.- XI State-of-the-Art and Future Trends in Single Photon Tomography.- Emission Tomography Using Rotating Cameras.- High Efficiency Multislice Approach for Single Photon Tomography of the Brain.- Design and Performance of the Cleon Two-Dimensional Focused-Ray Geometry Scanner for Single Photon Tomography.- Clinical Comparison between Multi-Ring Detector and Rotating Gamma Camera for Single Photon Tomography.- Discussion Summary.- Evaluation of the Computer Artifacts Generated in SPECT Reconstruction.- Limited Angle Sampling in SPECT.- X-Ray Tomography vs Compton Scattering in the Diagnosis of Pulmonary Diseases.- Seven Pinhole Tomography of the Heart.- SPECT Collimation for Medium-High Energy: Influence of Spatial Resolution and Image Contrast Within Transverse Plane.- XII Positron Emitters Radionuclides, Radiochemistry and Biotracers.- Cyclotrons and Positron Emitting Radiopharmaceuticals.- Radiopharmaceuticals for Positron Tomography.- Distributed Microprocessor Automation Network for Synthesizing Radiotracers used in Positron Emission Tomography.- Design Aspects of Installation for PET Radiochemistry.- An Automatic Line for the Production of Radiopharmaceuticals.- XIII Physiological Measurements by Positron Emission Tomography.- In Vivo Biochemistry, Physiology and Pharmacology Studies using Positron Emitting Radionuclides.- Evaluation of Performance and Accuracy in PET.- Advanced Cardiological Application of PET.- PET in Neurology: an Outline of Problems, Recent Acquisitions and Future Perspectives.- Simultaneous Determination of Cerebral Blood Flow and Partition Coefficient with a Freely Diffusable Tracer.- Discussion Summary.- Computerized Millimetric Mapping of Myocardial Blood Flow and Metabolism.- XIV State-of-the-Art and Future Trends in Pet Instrumentation.- Advanced Instrumentation for Positron Emission Tomography.- Signal to Noise Improvement in PET Using BGO.- The ECAT: A Recent Solution to High Efficiency, High Resolution Tomography.- Time-of-Flight Positron Emission Tomography (T.O.F. P.E.T.).- Potential Improvements in Instrumentation for PET.- Discussion Summary.- Comparison of Resolution and Crosstalk among Detectors Used in Positron Emission Tomography.- XV General Remarks.- Comparative Assessment of Imaging.- Perspective of Diffusion of Imaging Technologies.- List of Participants.- Colour Section.