title: Continuous-slice PENN-PET: a positron tomograph with volume imaging capability.
abstract: The PENN-PET scanner consists of six hexagonally arranged position-sensitive Nal(TI) detectors. This design offers high spatial resolution in all three dimensions, high sampling density along all three axes without scanner motion, a large axial acceptance angle, good energy resolution, and good timing resolution. This results in three-dimensional imaging capability with high sensitivity and low scatter and random backgrounds. The spatial resolution is 5.5 mm (FWHM) in all directions near the center. The true sensitivity, for a brain-sized object, is a maximum of 85 kcps/microCi/ml and the scatter fraction is a minimum of 10%, both depending on the lower level energy threshold. The scanner can handle up to 5 mCi in the field of view, at which point the randoms equal the true coincidences and the detectors reach their count rate limit. We have so far acquired [18F]FDG brain studies and cardiac studies, which show the applicability of our scanner for both brain and whole-body imaging. With the results to date, we feel that this design results in a simple yet high performance scanner which is applicable to many types of static and dynamic clinical studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 19104.
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Karp
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Muehllehner
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: MankofF
authors.forename: C E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Ordonez
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Ollinger
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Daube-Witherspoon
authors.forename: A T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Haigh
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Beerbohm
mesh_terms: D004867:Equipment Design; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed / Q000295:instrumentation*