Euromedim 2006 :1st European Conference on Molecular Imaging Technology

Measured and Simulated Specifications of the Lausanne ClearPET Scanner Demonstrator

9 May 2006, 14:00

1h

Palais du Pharo, Marseille

poster • System simulation, design and implementation Poster Session :Simulation, Modeling, Reconstruction

Speaker

Martin Rey (LPHE, EPFL)

Description

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) applied to small animal imaging is a potentially important tool in developing new drugs and imaging gene expression. The Crystal Clear Collaboration (CCC) is developing a new family of small animal PET scanners called ClearPET, which are based on LSO/LuYAP Depth-Of-Interaction (DOI) sensitive detector modules. In parallel, GATE, a new Monte Carlo simulator based on Geant4 was developed to help in the design of the ClearPET prototypes. Measurements obtained with the partial ring Lausanne ClearPET scanner demonstrator are presented and compared against GATE simulations. For the present architecture, a maximum single event count rate of 1.34 Mcps is measured. This corresponds to a coincidence count rate of approximatively 31k cps. The random coincidences are estimated by delaying single events and the scattered ones by comparison with GATE simulations. Good agreements are observed between measured and simulated data. Count rate performance, including NEC curves, are determined and extrapolated for a full ring ClearPET design using GATE Monte Carlo simulations. A Mini-Derenzo phantom was also simulated with the aim to study the effect of depth-of-interaction (DOI) on image quality. Results are compared for different scanner designs corresponding to a full-ring ClearPET design with two crystal layers or only one crystal layer. As expected, image quality improves significantly with DOI both in terms of signal-to-noise ration and contrast.