ABSTRACT
Because of the coarse spatial resolution of PET, animal studies have traditionally been conducted in larger species such as primates. However, the development of dedicated small animal scanners4,5 has allowed the use of smaller mammals (such as rats and mice) in pharmacological PET research (see Myers et al, 1999; Further reading). The improvement in resolution required for small animal scanning has often been achieved at the expense of sensitivity, and the trade-off between the two remains an issue in most dedicated small-animal systems.
