Huang Xianchao

Performance evaluation of a parallel-hole collimated detector module for animal SPECT imaging

We have built and investigated a detector module for animal SPECT imaging, especially for use in large field of view (FOV) conditions. The module consists of a PMT-based detector and a parallel-hole collimator with an effective area of 80 mm×80 mm. The detector is composed of a NaI scintillation crystal array coupled to four H8500 position sensitive photomultiplier tubes (PS-PMT). The intrinsic energy resolution of the detector is 11.5% at 140 keV on average. The planar spatial resolution of the module changes from 2.2 mm to 5.1 mm at different source-to-collimator distances with an unchanged sensitivity of about 34cps/MBq. Additionally, the SPECT Micro Deluxe Phantom imaging was performed with a radius of rotation (ROR) of 40 mm. Using the FBP reconstruction algorithm, a high performance image was obtained, indicating the feasibility of this detector module.

Far field 3D localization of radioactive hot spots using a coded aperture camera

This paper presents a coded aperture method to remotely estimate the radioactivity of a source. The activity is estimated from the detected counts and the estimated source location, which is extracted by factoring the effect of aperture magnification. A 6mm thick tungsten-copper alloy coded aperture mask is used to modulate the incoming gamma-rays. The location of point and line sources in all three dimensions was estimated with an accuracy of less than 10% when the source-camera distance was about 4 m. The estimated activities were 17.6% smaller and 50.4% larger than the actual activities for the point and line sources, respectively.

Attenuation correction with region growing method used in the positron emission mammography imaging system

The Positron Emission Mammography imaging system (PEMi) provides a novel nuclear diagnosis method dedicated for breast imaging. With a better resolution than whole body PET, PEMi can detect millimeter-sized breast tumors. To address the requirement of semi-quantitative analysis with a radiotracer concentration map of the breast, a new attenuation correction method based on a three-dimensional seeded region growing image segmentation (3DSRG-AC) method has been developed. The method gives a 3D connected region as the segmentation result instead of image slices. The continuity property of the segmentation result makes this new method free of activity variation of breast tissues. The threshold value chosen is the key process for the segmentation method. The first valley in the grey level histogram of the reconstruction image is set as the lower threshold, which works well in clinical application. Results show that attenuation correction for PEMi improves the image quality and the quantitative accuracy of radioactivity distribution determination. Attenuation correction also improves the probability of detecting small and early breast tumors.

Preliminary study of depth of interaction measurement for a PET detector

In this work we studied the feasibility of detecting the depth of interaction (DOI) with two layers of crystal arrays of LYSO and BGO scintillators coupled to a position-sensitive photomultiplier tube (PS-PMT) R8900-C12. A front-end electronics was designed, with which we got different pulse shapes for different crystals to obtain depth information. With the double integration method, we got the DOI histogram of a divided integration ratio of two crystals as the standard to determine the layer-of-interaction. The DOI accuracy, measured by scanning a 22Na slit source along the side of the module, was 98% for the LYSO layer and 95% for the BGO layer. The energy resolution at 511keV was 13.1% for LYSO and 17.1% for BGO. We obtained good crystal separation in 2D position histograms of both layers. These results could be useful in the manufacture of PET scanners with high spatial resolutions.