title: Initial performance studies of a wearable brain positron emission tomography camera based on autonomous thin-film digital Geiger avalanche photodiode arrays.
abstract: Using analytical and Monte Carlo modeling, we explored performance of a lightweight wearable helmet-shaped brain positron emission tomography (PET), or BET camera, based on thin-film digital Geiger avalanche photodiode arrays with Lutetium-yttrium oxyorthosilicate (LYSO) or [Formula: see text] scintillators for imagingin vivohuman brain function of freely moving and acting subjects. We investigated a spherical cap BET and cylindrical brain PET (CYL) geometries with 250-mm diameter. We also considered a clinical whole-body (WB) LYSO PET/CT scanner. The simulated energy resolutions were 10.8% (LYSO) and 3.3% ([Formula: see text]), and the coincidence window was set at 2 ns. The brain was simulated as a water sphere of uniform F-18 activity with a radius of 100 mm. We found that BET achieved [Formula: see text] better noise equivalent count (NEC) performance relative to the CYL and [Formula: see text] than WB. For 10-mm-thick [Formula: see text] equivalent mass systems, LYSO (7-mm thick) had [Formula: see text] higher NEC than [Formula: see text]. We found that [Formula: see text] scintillator crystals achieved [Formula: see text] full-width-half-maximum spatial resolution without parallax errors. Additionally, our simulations showed that LYSO generally outperformed [Formula: see text] for NEC unless the timing resolution for [Formula: see text] was considerably smaller than that presently used for LYSO, i.e., well below 300 ps.
authors.affiliation: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center , Department of Medical Physics, 1250 First Avenue, New York, New York 10065, United States.
authors.forename: Charles R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Schmidtlein
authors.affiliation: State University of New York at Binghamton , Department of Small Scale Systems, Vestal Parkway East, P.O. Box 6000, Binghamton, New York 13902, United States.
authors.forename: James N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Turner
authors.affiliation: Cornell University , Department of Materials Science and Engineering, 328 Bard Hall, Ithaca, New York 14853-1501, United States.
authors.forename: Michael O
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.affiliation: University of South Carolina , Department of Electrical Engineering, Main Street, Swearingen Engineering Building 301, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, United States.
authors.forename: Krishna C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Mandal
authors.affiliation: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center , Department of Medical Physics, 1250 First Avenue, New York, New York 10065, United States.
authors.forename: Ida
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Häggström
authors.affiliation: State University of New York Upstate Medical University , Department of Radiology, Syracuse, New York 13210, United States.
authors.forename: Jiahan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center , Department of Medical Physics, 1250 First Avenue, New York, New York 10065, United States.
authors.forename: John L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Humm
authors.affiliation: State University of New York Upstate Medical University , Department of Radiology, Syracuse, New York 13210, United States.
authors.forename: David H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Feiglin
authors.affiliation: State University of New York Upstate Medical University, Department of Radiology, Syracuse, New York 13210, United States; State University of New York Upstate Medical University, Department of Pharmacology, 750 E. Adams Street, Syracuse, New York 13210, United States.
authors.forename: Andrzej
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Krol
keywords: Monte Carlo simulations; brain imaging; positron emission tomography; thin-film autonomous digital Geiger avalanche photodiode arrays