Monolithic scintillator PET detectors with intrinsic depth-of-interaction correction.

Autor: Maas MC; Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 15, 2629 JB Delft, The Netherlands., Schaart DR, van der Laan DJ, Bruyndonckx P, Lemaître C, Beekman FJ, van Eijk CW
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Physics in medicine and biology [Phys Med Biol] 2009 Apr 07; Vol. 54 (7), pp. 1893-908. Date of Electronic Publication: 2009 Mar 05.
DOI: 10.1088/0031-9155/54/7/003
Abstrakt: We developed positron emission tomography (PET) detectors based on monolithic scintillation crystals and position-sensitive light sensors. Intrinsic depth-of-interaction (DOI) correction is achieved by deriving the entry points of annihilation photons on the front surface of the crystal from the light sensor signals. Here we characterize the next generation of these detectors, consisting of a 20 mm thick rectangular or trapezoidal LYSO:Ce crystal read out on the front and the back (double-sided readout, DSR) by Hamamatsu S8550SPL avalanche photodiode (APD) arrays optimized for DSR. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the detector point-spread function (PSF) obtained with a rectangular crystal at normal incidence equals approximately 1.05 mm at the detector centre, after correction for the approximately 0.9 mm diameter test beam of annihilation photons. Resolution losses of several tenths of a mm occur near the crystal edges. Furthermore, trapezoidal crystals perform almost equally well as rectangular ones, while improving system sensitivity. Due to the highly accurate DOI correction of all detectors, the spatial resolution remains essentially constant for angles of incidence of up to at least 30 degrees . Energy resolutions of approximately 11% FWHM are measured, with a fraction of events of up to 75% in the full-energy peak. The coincidence timing resolution is estimated to be 2.8 ns FWHM. The good spatial, energy and timing resolutions, together with the excellent DOI correction and high detection efficiency of our detectors, are expected to facilitate high and uniform PET system resolution.
Databáze: MEDLINE