Which of the following is NOT one of the four core PET processes?

• A. Radionuclide production
• B. Radiopharmaceutical production
• C. Data acquisition
• D. Quality control of imaging

Answer: (D)

The main idea here is identifying the essential steps that drive a PET study from start to finish. The four core PET processes are producing the radioactive tracer (radionuclide production), preparing and QA-testing that tracer for patient use (radiopharmaceutical production), collecting the detected photon events with the PET scanner (data acquisition), and turning those detected events into usable images through reconstruction and corrections (data processing).

Quality control of imaging, while absolutely critical for patient safety and for ensuring reliable, accurate results, sits outside these core steps. It’s a quality assurance activity that supports and verifies the overall workflow but isn’t one of the primary production, collection, and processing stages themselves. That’s why it’s not considered one of the four core PET processes.