A high resolution SPECT detector based on thin continuous LYSO.

Single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) detectors with improved spatial resolution can be used to build multi-pinhole SPECT systems that have a higher sensitivity or a higher spatial resolution. In order to improve the spatial resolution we investigate the performance of a 2 mm thick continuous Lutetium Yttrium Orthosilicate (LYSO) scintillator and compare it to the performance of a 5 mm thick continuous NaI(Tl) scintillator. The advantages of LYSO are its high stopping power and its non-hygroscopicity. Drawbacks are the lower light output and the intrinsic radioactivity. The hypothesis of this study is that such a thin LYSO scintillator will have a small light spread and, as a consequence, will also have an improved spatial resolution when coupled to a Hamamatsu H8500 position sensitive photomultiplier tube. To optimize the spatial resolution and the useful detector area we used a mean nearest neighbor event-positioning method. Beam source measurements ((99m)Tc, 140 keV) were done to investigate the energy resolution and the spatial resolution of both detectors. The effect of the intrinsic radioactivity of the LYSO scintillator in the energy window was quantified. The mean energy resolution is 9.3% for the NaI(Tl) scintillator and 21.3% for the LYSO scintillator. The LYSO spectrum shows an X-ray escape peak which decreases the detection efficiency with 9.1%. The spatial resolution of the LYSO detector (0.93 mm full width at half maximum (FWHM)) is superior to the spatial resolution of the NaI(Tl) detector (1.37 mm FWHM). The intrinsic radioactivity in the energy window (42% window centered at 140 keV) is low (125.6 cps, 0.024 cps mm(-3)). LYSO is a promising scintillator for small-animal SPECT imaging, where spatial resolution is more important than energy resolution.