Molecular Imaging Research & Education (MiRe) Laboratory, Department of Electronic Engineering, Sogang University, Seoul 04107, Korea.
Sensors (Basel). 2021 Aug 18;21(16):5566. doi: 10.3390/s21165566.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of a time-of-flight (TOF) brain positron emission tomography (PET) providing high-quality images. It consisted of 30 detector blocks arranged in a ring with a diameter of 257 mm and an axial field of view of 52.2 mm. Each detector block was composed of two detector modules and two application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips. The detector module was composed of an 8 × 8 array of 3 × 3 mm multi-pixel photon counters and an 8 × 8 array of 3.11 × 3.11 × 15 mm lutetium yttrium oxyorthosilicate scintillators. The 64-channel individual readout ASIC was used to acquire the position, energy, and time information of a detected gamma ray. A coincidence timing resolution of 187 ps full width at half maximum (FWHM) was achieved using a pair of channels of two detector modules. The energy resolution and spatial resolution were 6.6 ± 0.6% FWHM (without energy nonlinearity correction) and 2.5 mm FWHM, respectively. The results of this study demonstrate that the developed TOF brain PET could provide excellent performance, allowing for a reduction in radiation dose or scanning time for brain imaging due to improved sensitivity and signal-to-noise ratio.
本研究旨在探讨飞行时间（TOF）脑正电子发射断层扫描（PET）提供高质量图像的可行性。它由 30 个探测器模块组成，排列在一个直径为 257mm、轴向视野为 52.2mm 的环中。每个探测器模块由两个探测器模块和两个专用集成电路（ASIC）芯片组成。探测器模块由一个 8×8 阵列的 3×3mm 多像素光子计数器和一个 8×8 阵列的 3.11×3.11×15mm 硅酸镥钇闪烁体组成。64 通道的单个读出 ASIC 用于获取检测到的伽马射线的位置、能量和时间信息。使用两个探测器模块的一对通道，实现了 187ps 全宽半最大值（FWHM）的符合定时分辨率。能量分辨率和空间分辨率分别为 6.6±0.6% FWHM（无能量非线性校正）和 2.5mm FWHM。本研究结果表明，开发的 TOF 脑 PET 可以提供优异的性能，由于灵敏度和信噪比的提高，可以减少脑成像的辐射剂量或扫描时间。
