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Medical Physics / Volume 39 / Issue 2 / RADIATION IMAGING PHYSICS

Med. Phys. 39, 643 (2012); http://dx.doi.org/10.1118/1.3673771 (11 pages)

Small animal PET scanner based on monolithic LYSO crystals: Performance evaluation

F. Sánchez, A. Orero, M. Carles, A. Soriano, M. J. Rodriguez-Alvarez, F. Mora, and J. M. Benlloch

Instituto de Instrumentación para Imagen Molecular (I3M), Centro mixto CSIC—Universitat Politècnica de València—CIEMAT, camino de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain

L. Moliner

Instituto de Instrumentación para Imagen Molecular (I3M), Centro mixto CSIC—Universitat Politècnica de València—CIEMAT, camino de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain and Instituto de Física Corpuscular, Centro mixto CSIC-Univ. de Valencia, Edificio Institutos de Investigación, Paterna, E-46071 Valencia, Spain

C. Correcher and A. González

ONCOVISION, Ciudad Politécnica de la Innovación, Camino de Vera s/n, E-46022 Valencia, Spain

L. A. Medina

Unidad de Investigación Biomédica en Cáncer INCan-UNAM, Departamento de Medicina Nuclear, Instituto Nacional de Cancerología, Mexico City, Mexico and Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, A.P. 20-364, México 01000, México

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(Received 6 September 2011; accepted 8 December 2011; revised 7 December 2011; published online 12 January 2012)

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Purpose: The authors have developed a small animal Positron emission tomography (PET) scanner based on monolithic LYSO crystals coupled to multi-anode photomultiplier tubes (MA-PMTs). In this study, the authors report on the design, calibration procedure, and performance evaluation of a PET system that the authors have developed using this innovative nonpixelated detector design.
Methods: The scanner is made up of eight compact modules forming an octagon with an axial field of view (FOV) of 40 mm and a transaxial FOV of 80 mm diameter. In order to fully determine its performance, a recently issued National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) NU-4 protocol, specifically developed for small animal PET scanners, has been followed. By measuring the width of light distribution collected in the MA-PMT the authors are able to determine depth of interaction (DOI), thus making the proper identification of lines of response (LORs) with large incidence angles possible. PET performances are compared with those obtained with currently commercially available small animal PET scanners.
Results: At axial center when the point-like source is located at 5 mm from the radial center, the spatial resolution measured was 1.65, 1.80, and 1.86 mm full width at half maximum (FWHM) for radial, tangential, and axial image profiles, respectively. A system scatter fraction of 7.5% (mouse-like phantom) and 13% (rat-like phantom) was obtained, while the maximum noise equivalent count rate (NECR) was 16.9 kcps at 12.7 MBq (0.37 MBq/ml) for mouse-like phantom and 12.8 kcps at 12.4 MBq (0.042 MBq/ml) for rat-like phantom The peak absolute sensitivity in the center of the FOV is 2% for a 30% peak energy window. Several animal images are also presented.
Conclusions: The overall performance of our small animal PET is comparable to that obtained with much more complex crystal pixelated PET systems. Moreover, the new proposed PET produces high-quality images suitable for studies with small animals.

© 2012 American Association of Physicists in Medicine

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported by the Spanish Plan Nacional de Investigación Científica, Desarrollo e Innovación Tecnológica (I+D+I) under Grant No. FIS2010-21216-CO2-01 and Valencian Local Government under Grant No. PROMETEO 2008/114. The authors would like to thank Andrew Duncan for checking and correcting the text.

Article Outline

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. PET DESIGN
  3. PET CALIBRATION
    1. PET modules position calibration
    2. PET module pulse height correction
    3. PET Normalization
  4. PET SCANNER PERFORMANCE
    1. Spatial resolution
    2. Sensitivity
    3. Scatter fraction, count losses, and random coincidence measurements
    4. Image quality
  5. COMPARISON WITH OTHER SMALL ANIMAL PET
  6. ANIMAL STUDIES
  7. CONCLUSIONS
Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1118/1.3673771

KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords

calibration, phantoms, photomultipliers, positron emission tomography, scintillation, sensors, nuclear medicine, radionuclide imaging, small animal imaging, PET scanner

PACS

  • 87.57.uk

    Positron emission tomography (PET)

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

0094-2405 (print)  

Publisher

$abstract.society.value is a Member of CrossRef American Association of Physicists in Medicine

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Medical Physics is an official science journal of the AAPM and of the COMP/CCPM/IOMP
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Departments of Radiology, Radiation Oncology, Biophysics, Community and Public Health, Medical College of Wisconsin
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