Speaker
Description
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains a leading cause of global mortality, with a disproportionately high burden in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Despite the gold-standard status of Positron Emission Tomography (PET) for quantifying myocardial flow reserve, the widespread adoption of this technology in LMICs is hindered by the prohibitive cost and space requirements of oncology-centric, whole-body systems. In response to these gaps, we present a cardiac-dedicated PET system that integrates ultra-high resolution ($1\ \text{mm}$ spatial and $3\ \text{mm}$ DOI) with $\text{sub-}250\ \text{ps}$ timing performance for precision diagnostics. By delivering superior clinical imaging within an economically viable, compact footprint and a streamlined maintenance framework, this architecture offers a scalable solution to the critical shortage of advanced cardiovascular imaging tools in resource-limited settings.
Our system architecture is optimized specifically for the unique challenges of cardiac imaging, such as high-frequency motion and small target sizes. The current design utilizes a modular 20-panel configuration, yielding an axial field-of-view of $236.4\ \text{mm}$ and an aperture diameter of $493.28\ \text{mm}$. Each detector module incorporates an $8 \times 10$ LYSO crystal array coupled with a light-sharing window for depth-of-interaction (DOI) decoding, which is essential for maintaining uniform spatial resolution across the field of view. Technical characterization demonstrates that the system achieves state-of-the-art performance, including a detector-level coincidence time resolution (CTR) of 234 ps FWHM and a simulated intrinsic spatial resolution of $1.0\ \text{mm}$. Furthermore, the system integrates an advanced ECG-gating pipeline. Initial validation using a prototype system with eight detector panels demonstrated successful dynamic scans in rabbit ($n=1$, $2.0\ \text{kg}$) and rat ($n=1$, $216.2\ \text{g}$) models, where cyclic myocardial filling and ejection phases were clearly delineated across eight temporal gates.
By leveraging a cardiac-dedicated architecture, this work offers a strategic and highly viable pathway for deploying advanced imaging in resource-constrained LMICs. Unlike conventional PET systems which face significant deployment barriers, this specialized architecture optimizes clinical throughput. Furthermore, its compact mechanical design not only enhances system sensitivity to reduce radiotracer dose requirements, but also lays a robust foundation for the future of mobile PET instrumentation. Subsequent research will focus on the full-scale system integration of a clinical-standard human cardiac-dedicated PET device, encompassing hardware optimization and the advancement of high-performance reconstruction and correction algorithms
| Track | Deployment of Nuclear Medicine in LMICs: Enabling Technologies |
|---|---|
| Presentation type | Poster |