Study of Sensitivity and Resolution for Full Ring PET Prototypes based on Continuous Crystals and analytical modeling of the light distribution.

Study of Sensitivity and Resolution for Full Ring PET Prototypes based on Continuous Crystals and analytical modeling of the light distribution.
Phys Med Biol. 2018 Dec 11;:
Authors: Etxebeste A, Barrio J, Bernabéu Alberola J, Lacasta C, Llosa G, Muñoz E, Ros A, Oliver JF
Abstract
Sensitivity and spatial resolution are the main parameters to
 maximize in the performance of a PET scanner. For this purpose, detectors
 consisting of a combination of continuous crystals optically coupled to segmented
 photodetectors have been employed. With the use of continuous crystals the
 sensitivity is increased with respect to the pixelated crystals. In addition, spatial
 resolution is no longer limited to the crystal size. The main drawback is the
 difficulty in determining the interaction position.
 In this work, we present the characterization of the performance of a full
 ring based on cuboid continuous crystals coupled to SiPMs. To this end, we
 have employed the simulations developed in a previous work for our experimental
 detector head. Sensitivity could be further enhanced by using tapered crystals.
 This enhancement is obtained by increasing the solid angle coverage, reducing
 the wedge-shaped gaps between contiguous detectors. The performance of the
 scanners based on both crystal geometries was characterized following NEMA NU&#1...

Source: Physics in Medicine and Biology - December 11, 2018 Category: Physics Authors: Etxebeste A, Barrio J, Bernabéu Alberola J, Lacasta C, Llosa G, Muñoz E, Ros A, Oliver JF Tags: Phys Med Biol Source Type: research