Stolin A, Jaliparthi G, Raylman R R, Brefczynski-Lewis J, Majewski S, Qi J, Gong K, Dolinsky S
Center for Advanced Imaging, Department of Radiology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV.
Department of Radiology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA.
IEEE Trans Radiat Plasma Med Sci. 2019 Nov;3(6):634-639. doi: 10.1109/trpms.2019.2894974. Epub 2019 Jan 23.
Time-of-flight (TOF) capability is becoming an important capability offered in both commercial and research PET scanners. Often commercial vendors and laboratory researchers develop and utilize proprietary electronics for their devices. Consequently, it is challenging for independent research groups to develop their own TOF-PET scanners. In this investigation, we tested a prototype scanner consisting of commercially available TOF-capable modules from Hamamatsu Photonics that can be used as building blocks for PET scanners. The scanner consists of a ring of 16 modules, for a total diameter of 26.7 cm. Testing demonstrated that the scanner is capable of sustaining ~1 MHz single counting rate with a peak noise equivalent count rate (NECR) of 117.5 kHz at 75.25 MBq measured with NEMA NU-4 "rat" phantom. Spatial resolution of 2.3 mm 5 mm from the center of the scanner was measured. Energy resolution of 17.2% at 511 keV was measured. Peak sensitivity of 1.28% is reported. All the measurements were performed with energy cuts from 350 to 700 keV Finally, scanner timing resolution was found to be 462 ps. Results from testing of a prototype scanner constructed using newly released TOF-capable detector modules produced by Hamamatsu demonstrated the promise for these devices to create high performance PET system with TOF capabilities.
飞行时间（TOF）功能正成为商业和研究型正电子发射断层扫描仪（PET）所具备的一项重要功能。商业供应商和实验室研究人员通常会为他们的设备开发并使用专有的电子器件。因此，独立研究团队开发自己的TOF-PET扫描仪具有挑战性。在本研究中，我们测试了一台原型扫描仪，它由滨松光子学公司市售的具备TOF功能的模块组成，这些模块可用作PET扫描仪的组件。该扫描仪由16个模块组成一个环，总直径为26.7厘米。测试表明，该扫描仪能够维持约1兆赫兹的单计数率，使用NEMA NU-4“大鼠”体模测量时，在75.25兆贝可的活度下，峰值噪声等效计数率（NECR）为117.5千赫兹。在距离扫描仪中心2.3毫米×5毫米处测量得到空间分辨率。在511千电子伏处测量得到能量分辨率为17.2%。报告的峰值灵敏度为1.28%。所有测量均在350至700千电子伏的能量阈下进行。最后，发现扫描仪的定时分辨率为462皮秒。使用滨松公司新发布的具备TOF功能的探测器模块构建的原型扫描仪的测试结果表明，这些器件有望打造出具备TOF功能的高性能PET系统。
