title: Arrays of Segmented, Tapered Light Guides for Use with Large, Planar Scintillation Detectors.
abstract: Metabolic imaging techniques can potentially improve detection and diagnosis of cancer in women with radiodense and/or fibrocystic breasts. Our group has previously developed a high-resolution positron emission tomography imaging and biopsy device (PEM-PET) to detect and guide the biopsy of suspicious breast lesions. Initial testing revealed that the imaging field-of-view (FOV) of the scanner was smaller than the physical size of the detector's active area, which could hinder sampling of breast areas close to the chest wall. The purpose of this work was to utilize segmented, tapered light guides for optically coupling the scintillator arrays to arrays of position-sensitive photomultipliers to increase both the active FOV and identification of individual scintillator elements. Testing of the new system revealed that the optics of these structures made it possible to discern detector elements from the complete active area of the detector face. In the previous system the top and bottom rows and left and right columns were not identifiable. Additionally, use of the new light guides increased the contrast of individual detector elements by up to 129%. Improved element identification led to a spatial resolution increase by approximately 12%. Due to attenuation of light in the light guides the detector energy resolution decreased from 18.5% to 19.1%. Overall, these improvements should increase the field-of-view and spatial resolution of the dedicated breast-PET system.
authors.affiliation: Center for Advanced Imaging, Department of Radiology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26508 USA.
authors.forename: Raymond R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Raylman
authors.affiliation: President of Agile Technologies, Knoxville, TN 37932 USA.
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Vaigneur
authors.affiliation: Center for Advanced Imaging, Department of Radiology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26508 USA.
authors.forename: Alexander V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Stolin
authors.affiliation: Center for Advanced Imaging, Department of Radiology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26508 USA.
authors.forename: Gangadhar
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jaliparthi
keywords: Breast Cancer; Detectors; Nuclear Medicine