A long axial field of view (AFOV) scanner that could image a large fraction of the body at one time would significantly increase sensitivity and enable many imaging applications not possible today, such as ultra-low dose imaging, multi-organ dynamic PET imaging, and stem cell trafficking. Various factors affect the count rate performance of long AFOV scanners, such as detection efficiency, random event rate, and object attenuation. To find the optimal geometry and acquisition parameters to maximize count-rate performance for a wide range of scintillator volumes (10 to 93 l), Monte Carlo simulations using custom electronic models and pulse processing algorithms based on commercial designs were performed. We found a ~2m long PET scanner with 93 ls of scintillator obtains the greatest count rate performance, which delivers 25 times the peak noise equivalent count rate of a current commercial scanner with a 22 cm AFOV.
Physics in Medicine & Biology
Jun 11, 2012
Optimal whole-body PET scanner configurations for different volumes of LSO scintillator: a simulation study
Jonathan K Poon, Magnus L Dahlbom, William W Moses, Karthik Balakrishnan, Wenli Wang, Simon R Cherry and Ramsey D Badawi 2012 Phys. Med. Biol. 57 4077
About the author
Jonathan K Poon (University of California-Davis, USA), Magnus L Dahlbom (University of California-Los Angeles, USA), William W Moses (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA), Karthik Balakrishnan, Wenli Wang (Toshiba Medical Research Institute USA, Vernon Hills, IL, USA), Simon R Cherry (University of California-Davis, USA) and Ramsey D Badawi (University of California-Davis, and University of California-Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, USA)