title: Design and initial performance of PlanTIS: a high-resolution positron emission tomograph for plants.
abstract: Positron emitters such as (11)C, (13)N and (18)F and their labelled compounds are widely used in clinical diagnosis and animal studies, but can also be used to study metabolic and physiological functions in plants dynamically and in vivo. A very particular tracer molecule is (11)CO(2) since it can be applied to a leaf as a gas. We have developed a Plant Tomographic Imaging System (PlanTIS), a high-resolution PET scanner for plant studies. Detectors, front-end electronics and data acquisition architecture of the scanner are based on the ClearPET system. The detectors consist of LSO and LuYAP crystals in phoswich configuration which are coupled to position-sensitive photomultiplier tubes. Signals are continuously sampled by free running ADCs, and data are stored in a list mode format. The detectors are arranged in a horizontal plane to allow the plants to be measured in the natural upright position. Two groups of four detector modules stand face-to-face and rotate around the field-of-view. This special system geometry requires dedicated image reconstruction and normalization procedures. We present the initial performance of the detector system and first phantom and plant measurements.
authors.affiliation: Central Institute for Electronics, Forschungszentrum Juelich, D-52425 Juelich, Germany. si.beer@fz-juelich.de
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Beer
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Streun
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hombach
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Buehler
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jahnke
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Khodaverdi
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Larue
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Minwuyelet
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Parl
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Roeb
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Schurr
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ziemons
mesh_terms: D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D004867:Equipment Design; D001467:Hordeum; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D018517:Plant Roots; D010944:Plants; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D012399:Rotation; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D002245:Carbon Dioxide