M. Giménez

Performance tests of two portable mini gamma cameras for medical applications.

We have developed two prototypes of portable gamma cameras for medical applications based on a previous prototype designed and tested by our group. These cameras use a CsI(Na) continuous scintillation crystal coupled to the new flat-panel-type multianode position-sensitive photomultiplier tube, H8500 from Hamamatsu Photonics. One of the prototypes, mainly intended for intrasurgical use, has a field of view of 44×44mm2, and weighs 1.2kg. Its intrinsic resolution is better than 1.5mm and its energy resolution is about 13% at 140keV. The second prototype, mainly intended for osteological, renal, mammary, and endocrine (thyroid, parathyroid, and suprarenal) scintigraphies, weighs a total of 2kg. Its average spatial resolution is 2mm; it has a field of view of 95×95mm2, with an energy resolution of about 15% at 140keV. The main advantages of these gamma camera prototypes with respect to those previously reported in the literature are high portability and low weight, with no significant loss of sensitivity and spatial resolution. All the electronic components are packed inside the mini gamma cameras, and no external electronic devices are required. The cameras are only connected through the universal serial bus port to a portable PC. In this paper, we present the design of the cameras and describe the procedures that have led us to choose their configuration together with the most important performance features of the cameras. For one of the prototypes, clinical tests on melanoma patients are presented and images are compared with those obtained with a conventional camera.

Detector optimization of a small animal PET camera based on continuous LSO crystals and flat panel PS-PMTs

We have built a PET camera for small animals based on continuous block LSO crystals coupled to a PS-PMT flat panel. When working with continuous crystals, surface treatment is an important factor that strongly determines the main characteristics of the detector module. As a part of the work done for the development of our small animals PET camera, we have investigated the effect of the scintillator crystal surface treatment on the PET detector module performances, in order to optimize crystal configuration. We present the results for spatial resolution, image compression and energy resolution obtained when using different surface treatments in continuous LSO crystals. These results are compared with those obtained from simulations that have been carried out using DETECT2000 package.

Depth of interaction measurement in gamma ray imaging detectors with continuous scintillation crystals

A design for an inexpensive depth of interaction (DOI) detector for gamma rays, suitable for nuclear medical applications, especially positron emission tomography (PET), has been developed, studied by simulations and tested experimentally. The detector consists of a continuous LSO-scintillator of dimensions 42/spl times/42/spl times/10 mm/sup 3/ and a new compact large-area (49/spl times/49 mm/sup 2/) position sensitive photo-multiplier (PSPMT) H8500 from Hamamatsu. Since a continuous crystal is used, the scintillation light distribution is not destroyed and its first 3 moments can be used to determine the energy (0th moment), the centroids along the x- and y-direction (1st moments) and the depth of interaction (DOI), which is strongly correlated to the distributions width and thus its standard deviation (2nd moment). The simultaneous computation of these moments allows a three-dimensional reconstruction of the position of interaction of the /spl gamma/-rays within the scintillating crystal and will be realized by a modified position sensitive proportional (PSP) resistor network. No additional photo detectors or scintillating crystals are needed. According to previous Monte Carlo simulations which estimated the influence of Compton scattering for 511 keV /spl gamma/-rays, the transport of the scintillation light within the detector assembly and also the behavior of the modified PSP resistor network, we expect a spatial resolution of /spl lsim/ 2 mm and a DOI resolution of /spl ap/ 5 mm. The first experimental results presented here yield an intrinsic spatial resolution of /spl lsim/ 1.8 mm and 2.6 mm for the x- and y-direction respectively and a DOI resolution /spl lsim/ 1 cm. Further we measured an energy resolution of 12%-18%.

Comparison of different Monte-Carlo based approaches to calculating the system matrix for small animal PET

This study focuses on Monte-Carlo (MC) based techniques to calculate the system matrix (SM) for iterative image reconstruction of small animal PET data. Our goal is to determine in advance if some simplifications can be done to accelerate the MC simulation without jeopardizing the accuracy of the system model. For most PET scanners, the calculation of the SM would imply extremely long simulation times, even when considering symmetries. Our small animal scanner prototype consists of a continuous LSO crystal (42 times 42 times 10 mm3 ) attached to a flat panel position sensitive photomultiplier tube which was simulated using GATE. To compute the SM elements, we investigated three different radioactivity distribution models: (a) homogeneous distribution within the voxel, (b) one unique emission point at the center of the voxel and (c) eight point sources distributed within the voxel. Each of these models was simulated for five representative voxel positions inside the field of view (FOV), two of these voxels in the inner region of the FOV and the other three voxels were in the peripheral region of the FOV. The storage and discretization of the SM elements was performed by means of: (i) tube-of-response (TOR) histograms and (ii) sinograms. By comparing the SMs elements generated for each distribution model at each voxels position, the accuracy of the models was studied. The results show that in the inner region of the FOV, model C distribution yields the best trade-off between simulation time and SM accuracy. Whereas, for the peripheral region of the FOV, model B yields the best compromise. These results are independent of the discretization process considered. Since the scanner is capable to yield depth-of-interaction (DOI) information, the study was performed taking DOI into account

Fully digital trigger and pre-processing electronics for planar positron emission mammography (PEM) scanners

Digital trigger algorithms performed over large sequences of data can be an efficient way to shift processing time from baseline samples or singles to coincident photo multiplier tube pulses. This paper describes a coincidence processing system intended to implement fully digital trigger and pre-processing algorithms for a positron emission tomography scanner dedicated to breast imaging. In order to efficiently address all the emerging issues of high resolution PET detectors, a high performance DSP processor has been embedded into the backbone of the system. Signals from 12 channels of a dual-head PET camera are acquired in free-running sampling while a first stage of FIFO memories, implemented using a Virtex-II Pro FPGA, translate data from a sequential sample-by-sample processing basis to a more efficient block-by-block one. This approach enables us to carry out trigger and pre-processing tasks in parallel. Moreover, the scheme offers additional benefits: intrinsic temporal coherence, zero data acquisition dead time, and a more flexible software approach to pre- and post-processing issues (from pile-ups and scatter correction to pre-reconstruction processing). It also heavily reduces the bandwidth required for the link to the host computer, enabling the use of a high speed USB port. The DAQ system is capable of handling count rates up to 10 Mevents/s, pre-processing the samples on the fly and lastly delivering data to the host computer for image reconstruction.