Gaudin Émilie, Toussaint Maxime, Thibaudeau Christian, Paillé Maxime, Fontaine Réjean, Lecomte Roger
Sherbrooke Molecular Imaging Center of CRCHUS and Department of Nuclear Medicine and Radiobiology, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada.
Department of Computer Science, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada.
IEEE Trans Radiat Plasma Med Sci. 2019 May;3(3):334-342. doi: 10.1109/TRPMS.2018.2877511. Epub 2018 Oct 23.
The concept of a new ultra-high resolution positron emission tomography (PET) brain scanner featuring truly pixelated detectors based on the LabPET II technology is presented. The aim of this study is to predict the performance of the scanner using GATE simulations. The NEMA procedures for human and small animal PET scanners were used, whenever appropriate, to simulate spatial resolution, scatter fraction, count rate performance and the sensitivity of the proposed system compared to state-of-the-art PET scanners that would currently be the preferred choices for brain imaging, namely the HRRT dedicated brain PET scanner and the Biograph Vision wholebody clinical PET scanner. The imaging performance was also assessed using the NEMA-NU4 image quality phantom, a mini hot spot phantom and a 3-D voxelized brain phantom. A reconstructed nearly isotropic spatial resolution of 1.3 mm FWHM is obtained at 10 mm from the center of the field of view. With an energy window of 250-650 keV, the system absolute sensitivity is estimated at 3.4% and its maximum NECR reaches 16.4 kcps at 12 kBq/cc. The simulation results provide evidence of the promising capabilities of the proposed scanner for ultra-high resolution brain imaging.
本文介绍了一种基于LabPET II技术、采用真正像素化探测器的新型超高分辨率正电子发射断层扫描（PET）脑部扫描仪的概念。本研究的目的是使用GATE模拟来预测该扫描仪的性能。在适当的时候，采用了适用于人类和小动物PET扫描仪的NEMA程序，来模拟所提出系统的空间分辨率、散射分数、计数率性能和灵敏度，并与目前脑部成像的首选、即HRRT专用脑部PET扫描仪和Biograph Vision全身临床PET扫描仪等最先进的PET扫描仪进行比较。还使用NEMA-NU4图像质量体模、微型热点体模和三维体素化脑部体模对成像性能进行了评估。在距视野中心10 mm处获得了重建后的近各向同性空间分辨率，半高宽为1.3 mm。在能量窗为250 - 650 keV时，系统绝对灵敏度估计为3.4%，在12 kBq/cc时其最大噪声等效计数率达到16.4 kcps。模拟结果证明了所提出的扫描仪在超高分辨率脑部成像方面具有广阔的应用前景。
