Abstract
BACKGROUND: The total-body positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) system, with a long axial field of view, represents the state-of-the-art PET imaging technique. Recently, the total-body PET/CT system has been commercially available. The total-body PET/CT system enables high-resolution whole-body imaging, even under extreme conditions such as ultra-low dose, extremely fast imaging speed, delayed imaging more than 10 h after tracer injection, and total-body dynamic scan. The total-body PET/CT system provides a real-time picture of the tracers of all organs across the body, which not only helps to explain normal human physiological process, but also facilitates the comprehensive assessment of systemic diseases. In addition, the total-body PET/CT system may play critical roles in other medical fields, including cancer imaging, drug development and immunology. MAIN BODY: Therefore, it is of significance to summarize the existing studies of the total-body PET/CT systems and point out its future direction. This review collected research literatures from the PubMed database since the advent of commercially available total-body PET/CT systems to the present, and was divided into the following sections: Firstly, a brief introduction to the total-body PET/CT system was presented, followed by a summary of the literature on the performance evaluation of the total-body PET/CT. Then, the research and clinical applications of the total-body PET/CT were discussed. Fourthly, deep learning studies based on total-body PET imaging was reviewed. At last, the shortcomings of existing research and future directions for the total-body PET/CT were discussed. CONCLUSION: Due to its technical advantages, the total-body PET/CT system is bound to play a greater role in clinical practice in the future.