The Impact of Positron Range on PET Resolution, Evaluated with Phantoms and PHITS Monte Carlo Simulations for Conventional and Non-conventional Radionuclides
| Autor: | Jason S. Lewis, Lukas M. Carter, Suzanne E. Lapi, Adriana V.F. Massicano, Corey Cutler, Vanessa A. Sanders, Edwin C. Pratt, Adam Kesner |
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| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
Diagnostic Imaging
Point spread function Cancer Research Materials science Nuclear engineering Physics::Medical Physics Monte Carlo method Gallium Radioisotopes Iterative reconstruction Article Imaging phantom 030218 nuclear medicine & medical imaging Mice 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Positron Image Processing Computer-Assisted medicine Animals Computer Simulation Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging Image resolution Radioisotopes Manganese medicine.diagnostic_test Phantoms Imaging Resolution (electron density) Oncology Positron emission tomography Positron-Emission Tomography Zirconium Radiopharmaceuticals Monte Carlo Method |
| Zdroj: | Mol Imaging Biol |
| ISSN: | 1860-2002 1536-1632 |
| Popis: | PURPOSE: The increasing interest and availability of non-standard positron-emitting radionuclides has heightened the relevance of radionuclide choice in the development and optimization of new positron emission tomography (PET) imaging procedures, both in preclinical research and clinical practice. Differences in achievable resolution arising from positron range can largely influence application suitability of each radionuclide, especially in small-ring preclinical PET where system blurring factors due to annihilation photon acollinearity and detector geometry are less significant. Some resolution degradation can be mitigated with appropriate range corrections implemented during image reconstruction, the quality of which is contingent on an accurate characterization of positron range. PROCEDURES: To address this need, we have characterized the positron range of several standard and non-standard PET radionuclides (As-72, F-18, Ga-68, Mn-52, Y-86, and Zr-89) through imaging of small-animal quality control phantoms on a benchmark preclinical PET scanner. Further, the Particle and Heavy Ion Transport code System (PHITS v3.02) code was utilized for Monte Carlo modeling of positron range-dependent blurring effects. RESULTS: Positron range kernels for each radionuclide were derived from simulation of point sources in ICRP reference tissues. PET resolution and quantitative accuracy afforded by various radionuclides in practicable imaging scenarios were characterized using a convolution-based method based on positron annihilation distributions obtained from PHITS. Our imaging and simulation results demonstrate the degradation of small animal PET resolution, and quantitative accuracy correlates with increasing positron energy; however, for a specific “benchmark” preclinical PET scanner and reconstruction workflow, these differences were observed to be minimal given radionuclides with average positron energies below ~ 400 keV. CONCLUSION: Our measurements and simulations of the influence of positron range on PET resolution compare well with previous efforts documented in the literature and provide new data for several radionuclides in increasing clinical and preclinical use. The results will support current and future improvements in methods for positron range corrections in PET imaging. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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