title: The positron emission mammography/tomography breast imaging and biopsy system (PEM/PET): design, construction and phantom-based measurements.
abstract: Tomographic breast imaging techniques can potentially improve detection and diagnosis of cancer in women with radiodense and/or fibrocystic breasts. We have developed a high-resolution positron emission mammography/tomography imaging and biopsy device (called PEM/PET) to detect and guide the biopsy of suspicious breast lesions. PET images are acquired to detect suspicious focal uptake of the radiotracer and guide biopsy of the area. Limited-angle PEM images could then be used to verify the biopsy needle position prior to tissue sampling. The PEM/PET scanner consists of two sets of rotating planar detector heads. Each detector consists of a 4 x 3 array of Hamamatsu H8500 flat panel position sensitive photomultipliers (PSPMTs) coupled to a 96 x 72 array of 2 x 2 x 15 mm(3) LYSO detector elements (pitch = 2.1 mm). Image reconstruction is performed with a three-dimensional, ordered set expectation maximization (OSEM) algorithm parallelized to run on a multi-processor computer system. The reconstructed field of view (FOV) is 15 x 15 x 15 cm(3). Initial phantom-based testing of the device is focusing upon its PET imaging capabilities. Specifically, spatial resolution and detection sensitivity were assessed. The results from these measurements yielded a spatial resolution at the center of the FOV of 2.01 +/- 0.09 mm (radial), 2.04 +/- 0.08 mm (tangential) and 1.84 +/- 0.07 mm (axial). At a radius of 7 cm from the center of the scanner, the results were 2.11 +/- 0.08 mm (radial), 2.16 +/- 0.07 mm (tangential) and 1.87 +/- 0.08 mm (axial). Maximum system detection sensitivity of the scanner is 488.9 kcps microCi(-1) ml(-1) (6.88%). These promising findings indicate that PEM/PET may be an effective system for the detection and diagnosis of breast cancer.
authors.affiliation: Center for Advanced Imaging, Department of Radiology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA. rraylman@wvu.edu
authors.forename: Raymond R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Raylman
authors.forename: Stan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Majewski
authors.forename: Mark F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Proffitt
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Hammond
authors.forename: Amarnath
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Srinivasan
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McKisson
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Popov
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Weisenberger
authors.forename: Clifford O
authors.initials: CO
authors.lastname: Judy
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kross
authors.forename: Srikanth
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ramasubramanian
authors.forename: Larry E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Banta
authors.forename: Paul E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Kinahan
authors.forename: Kyle
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Champley
mesh_terms: D001707:Biopsy, Needle / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008327:Mammography / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D025321:Surgery, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods