title: Design of a very high-resolution small animal PET scanner using a silicon scatter detector insert.
abstract: A small animal positron emission tomography (PET) instrument using a high-resolution solid-state detector insert in a conventional PET system was investigated for its potential to achieve sub-millimeter spatial resolution for mouse imaging. Monte Carlo simulations were used to estimate the effect of detector configurations (thickness, length and radius) on sensitivity. From this initial study, a PET system having an inner cylindrical silicon detector (4 cm ID, 4 cm length and 1.6 cm thickness composed of 16 layers of 300 microm x 300 microm x 1 mm pads), for scattering, surrounded by an outer cylindrical BGO scintillation detector (17.6 cm ID, 16 cm length and 2 cm thickness segmented into 3 mm x 3 mm x 20 mm crystals), for capture was evaluated in detail. In order to evaluate spatial resolution, sensitivity and image quality of the PET system, 2D images of multiple point and cylinder sources were reconstructed with the simulation data including blurring from positron range and annihilation photon acollinearity using filtered backprojection (FBP). Simulation results for (18)F demonstrate 340 microm FWHM at the center of the field of view with 1.0% sensitivity from the coincidence of single scattering events in both silicon detectors and 1.0 mm FWHM with 9.0% sensitivity from the coincidence of single scattering in the silicon and full energy absorption of the second photon in the BGO detector.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. sangjune@umich.edu
authors.forename: Sang-June
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: W Leslie
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Rogers
authors.forename: Neal H
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Clinthorne
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods / Q000662:veterinary*; D011829:Radiation Dosage; D011874:Radiometry / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012825:Silicon / Q000528:radiation effects*; D014159:Transducers
chemical_list: D012825:Silicon