Huang Bangyan, Wang Zipai, Zeng Xinjie, Goldan Amir H, Qi Jinyi
Departement of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, 451 Health Sciences Dr., Davis, CA USA.
Departement of Radiology, Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University, 520 East 70th Street, New York City, NY USA.
Commun Phys. 2025;8(1):181. doi: 10.1038/s42005-025-02100-6. Epub 2025 Apr 26.
Due to the ortho-positronium formed prior to the annihilation, the lifetime of a positron is sensitive to the tissue microenvironment and can potentially provide valuable information for monitoring disease progression and treatment response. However, the lifetime of positrons before annihilation has long been overlooked in current positron emission tomography (PET). Here we develop a positron lifetime image reconstruction method called SIMPLE (Statistical IMage reconstruction of Positron Lifetime via time-wEighting) and demonstrate its performance using a real scan on a time-of-flight PET scanner. The SIMPLE method achieves high-resolution positron lifetime imaging of extended heterogeneous tissue illuminated by a Na point source, successfully resolving the boundary between muscle and fat. It delivers spatial resolution comparable to that of conventional PET activity images while maintaining a computational cost equivalent to reconstructing two PET images. This work paves the way for clinical translation of high-resolution positron lifetime imaging.
由于在湮灭之前形成了正电子素，正电子的寿命对组织微环境敏感，并有可能为监测疾病进展和治疗反应提供有价值的信息。然而，在当前的正电子发射断层扫描（PET）中，湮灭前正电子的寿命长期以来一直被忽视。在此，我们开发了一种称为SIMPLE（通过时间加权进行正电子寿命的统计图像重建）的正电子寿命图像重建方法，并使用飞行时间PET扫描仪上的实际扫描展示了其性能。SIMPLE方法实现了由钠点源照射的扩展异质组织的高分辨率正电子寿命成像，成功分辨出肌肉和脂肪之间的边界。它提供了与传统PET活性图像相当的空间分辨率，同时保持了与重建两张PET图像相当的计算成本。这项工作为高分辨率正电子寿命成像的临床转化铺平了道路。
