Development of a Preclinical PET Scanner With DOI Capabilities Using Semi-Monolithic Detectors

[EN] Most preclinical PET scanners are based on pixelated detectors without Depth of Interaction (DOI) capabilities, which is crucial to correct for parallax errors. Semi-monolithic crystals have the potential to combine the timing capabilities of pixelated crystals and the 3D positioning accuracy o...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Cucarella-Melo, Neus, Freire-López-Fando, Marta, González Martínez, Antonio Javier, Sanchez-Gonzalo, David, Jiménez-Serrano, Santiago|||0000-0003-2917-6053, Loignon-Houle, Francis, Benlloch Baviera, Jose María|||0000-0001-6073-1436, Gonzalez-Montoro, Andrea, Moliner, Laura, Valladares, Celia, Bruyndonckx, Peter, Correcher, Carlos
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV)
Repositorio:RiuNet. Repositorio Institucional de la Universitat Politécnica de Valéncia
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:dnet:riunet______::b97b5a01719a83a1220b71a62a067111
Acceso en línea:https://riunet.upv.es/handle/10251/235768
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Depth of interaction
Preclinical PET
Semimonolithic scintillator crystals
SiPMs
Descripción
Sumario:[EN] Most preclinical PET scanners are based on pixelated detectors without Depth of Interaction (DOI) capabilities, which is crucial to correct for parallax errors. Semi-monolithic crystals have the potential to combine the timing capabilities of pixelated crystals and the 3D positioning accuracy of monolithic scintillators. In this work, we present a preclinical PET prototype consisting of 2 rings defining an inner diameter of 106 mm and an axial length of 52 mm. Each ring contains 14 arrays of 1 × 22 LYSO slabs of 0.97 mm × 25.6 mm × 12 mm, coupled to 8 × 8 SiPMs arrays. The sensitivity, spatial resolution, count rate performance and image quality were studied using the NEMA NU 4-2008 protocol. All images were reconstructed using the MLEM algorithm with 0.5 mm voxel size, including DOI information and normalization correction. A mean spatial resolution for all measured positions and across the three directions (axial, transaxial and radial) of 1.61 ± 0.19 mm was obtained at the center of the FOV. A peak sensitivity of 3.5% was obtained at the center of the scanner, for an energy window (EW) between 358 keV -664 keV. The noise equivalent count rate peak reached 106.9 kcps for an activity of 11.7 MBq using the mouse-sized phantom, the same EW window and a time coincidence window of 10 ns. For the image quality phantom, contrast recovery coefficients of 0.20, 0.62, 0.75, 0.81 and 0.85 were found for the 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 mm rods, respectively. Spill-over-ratio values of 0.10 for air-filled and 0.23 for water-filled cylinders were measured. Also, according to the Rayleigh criterion, 1.5, 1.2 and 1 mm hot spots of a micro-Derenzo phantom were well distinguished.