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Positional single photon incidence response (P-SPIR) theory is researched in this paper to generate more accurate PSF-contained system matrix simply and quickly. The method has been proved highly effective to improve the spatial resolution by applying to the Eplus-260 primate PET designed by the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(IHEP). Simultaneously, to meet the clinical needs, GPU acceleration is put to use. Basically, P-SPIR theory takes both incidence angle and incidence position by crystal subdivision instead of only incidence angle into consideration based on Geant4 Application for Emission Tomography (GATE). The simulation conforms to the actual response distribution and can be completed rapidly within less than 1s. Furthermore,two-block penetration and normalization of the response probability are raised to fit the reality. With PSF obtained, the homogenization model is analyzed to calculate the spread distribution of bins within a few minutes for system matrix generation. As a reult, The images reconstructed indicate that the P-SPIR method can effectively inhibit the depth of interaction (DOI) effect especially in the field close to the edge of the field of view (FOV). What is more, the method can be promoted to any other PET and the list-mode organization structure high-speedily and efficiently, which substantially reduces the computing cost and ensures the accuracy of system matrix for PET reconstruction., Comment: 6 pages,12 figures

Respiratory motion is a major factor that affects the quality of PET images of the thoracic area. The diaphragm moves about 15–20 mm due to respiratory motion, which substantially degrades the effective spatial resolution of PET. In this paper, a gated acquisition method is used to correct the motion effects. In this method, an improved demons algorithm is proposed to align the gated images. The experimental results show that the quality of PET images is significantly improved when using our improved method and the proposed method has a faster convergence rate than the original demons algorithm.

Geometric calibration is critical to the accurate SPECT reconstruction. In this paper, a geometric calibration method was developed for a dedicated breast SPECT system with a tilted parallel beam (TPB) orbit. The acquisition geometry of the breast SPECT was firstly characterized. And then its projection model was established based on the acquisition geometry. Finally, the calibration results were obtained using a nonlinear optimization method that fitted the measured projections to the model. Monte Carlo data of the breast SPECT were used to verify the calibration method. Simulation results showed that the geometric parameters with reasonable accuracy could be obtained by the proposed method.

A PET module that comprises a pair of compact, high-resolution and large-area detectors based on silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) was developed and evaluated. The detector's effective area was 24 mm x 24 mm. LYSO crystals measuring 1.9 mm x 1.9 mm x 10 mm and charge division circuit were employed to obtain high spatial resolution with relatively concise Front-end electronics (FEE). Initial results showed the detector to be compatible with 1.5 T magnetic fields. The system's intrinsic FWHM spatial resolution is 1.50 mm. The average energy resolution is 18.5% and the coincidence timing resolution is 2.6 ns. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

In fully three-dimensional (3D) positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, the scatter fraction (SF) is about 40%-60%, which may degrade the imaging quality severely. Scatter correction is important for high quality image reconstruction. Model-based scatter correction has been proved to be accurate and available in clinical PET. However, it does not correct the scatter from out of the field of view (OFOV) and multiple scatters. In this study, we demonstrate the radial and axial distribution of scatters from OFOV when the source is located in different radial positions. In order to apply the above conclusions to different PET systems, we characterize the scatters from OFOV as a function of the ratio of the scanner diameter to the length of the axial field of view (AFOV) by modeling several typical whole-body and micro PET systems. The proportions of true events (S0–0), single scatter of one photon (S1–0), single scatter of both photons (S1–1), double scatter of one photon (S2–0) and multiple scatter (Sm) are also calculated and compared. Here the 3D-PET Monte Carlo simulations are performed with the Geant4 Application for Tomography Emission (GATE). In summary, the scatters from OFOV tend to be recorded on the lines of response (LOR) far away from the source. They have a much more serious impact on whole-body PET than micro PET depending on the ratio of scanner diameter to the length of AFOV. In whole-body PET, twice scatters including single scatter of both photons (S1–1) and double scatter of one photon (S2–0) add up to about 12% so that twice scatter correction must be taken into account to acquire a high quality reconstruction image.

PET/MR is a new multi-modality imaging system which provide both structural and functional information with good soft tissue imaging ability and no ionizing radiation. In recent years, PET/MR is under major progress because of the development of silicon photomultipliers (SiPM). The goal of this study is to develop a MRI compatible PET insert based on SiPM and LYSO scintillator. The PET system was constituted by the detector ring, electronics and software. The detector ring consists of 16 detector module. The inner diameter of the ring was 151 mm, the external diameter was 216 mm, which was big enough for small animal research, e.g. rat, rabbit and tupaia. The sensor of each module was 2*2 SensL SPMArraySL, coupled with an array of 14 x 14 LYSO crystals, each crystal measuring 2 mm x 2 mm 10 mm. The detector was encapsulated in a copper box for light and magnetic shielding. Resister charge multiplexing circuit was used in the front end electronics. Each detector output 8X and 8Y position signals. One summed timing signal was extracted from the common cathode of all 64 channels. All these signals were transmitted to digital electronic board by a 3 m long coaxial cable from inside of the MR to the outside. Each digital electronic board handled 8 detector modules based on FPGA to obtain the timing, position and energy information of a single event. And then these single events were sent to the coincidence processing board to produce coincidence packets which are prepared for further processing. A 0.2mCi 68Ge line source was used to do the preliminary imaging test. The image was reconstructed by 3D-OSEM algorithm. The initial result proved the system to be feasible as a PET. FDG phantom imaging and simultaneous PET/MR imaging are in progress.

In scintillation detector, scintillation crystals are typically made into 2-dimension modular array. The location of incident gamma-ray need be calibrated due to spatial response nonlinearity. Generally, position histograms, the characteristic flood response of scintillation detectors, are used for position calibration. In this paper, a position calibration method based on crystal position lookup table which maps the inaccurate location calculated by Anger logic to the exact hitting crystal position has been proposed, Firstly, position histogram is segmented into disconnected regions. Then crystal marking points are labeled by finding the centroids of regions. Finally, crystal boundaries are determined and crystal position lookup table is generated. The scheme is evaluated by the whole-body PET scanner and breast dedicated SPECT detector developed by Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The results demonstrate that the algorithm is accurate, efficient, robust and general purpose., 9 pages, 10 figures

An instrument used for measuring multiple scintillators' light output and energy resolution was developed. The instrument consisted of a light sensor array which was composed of 64 discrete SiPMs (Silicon Photomultipliers), a corresponding individual channel readout electronics system, and a data processing algorithm. A Teflon grid and a large interval between adjacent SiPMs were employed to eliminate the optical cross talk among scintillators. The scintillators' light output was obtained by comparing with a reference sample with known light output. Given the SiPM temperature dependency and the difference among each SiPM, a temperature offset correction algorithm and a non-uniformity correction algorithm were added to the instrument. A positioning algorithm, based on nine points, was designed to evaluate the performance of a scintillator array. Tests were performed to evaluate the instrument's performance. The uniformity of 64 channels for light output measurement was better than 98%, the stability was better than 98% when temperature varied from 15 °C to 40 °C, and the nonlinearity under 511 keV was better than 2%. This instrument was capable of selecting scintillators and evaluating the packaging technology of scintillator arrays with high efficiency and accuracy.

Positron Emission Mammography imaging system (PEMi) is a nuclear medicine diagnosis method dedicated for breast imaging. It provides a better resolution in detection of millimeter-sized breast tumors than whole-body PET. To address the requirement of semi-quantitative analysis with the radiotracer concentration map of the breast, a new attenuation correction method based on three-dimensional seeded region growing image segmentation (3DSRG-AC) solution was developed. The method gives a 3D connected region as the segmentation result instead of image slices. The continuously segmentation property makes this new method free of activity variation of breast tissues. Threshold value chosen is the key point for the segmentation process. The first valley of the grey level histogram of the reconstruction image is set as the lower threshold, which works fine 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 probabilities to detect small and early breast tumors.

Accurate attenuation correction is required in dedicated breast PET imaging systems for image artifact removal and quantitative studies. In this study, a method using only emission data based on consistency conditions is proposed for attenuation correction in breast PET imaging systems. The consistency conditions are exploited to evaluate the accuracy of the estimated attenuation distribution and find the appropriate parameters that yield the most consistent attenuation distribution with the measured emission data. We have proved the validity of the method with experimental investigations and single-patient studies using a dedicated breast PET. The results show that the method is capable of accurately estimating the attenuation distribution of a uniform attenuator from the experimental data with various relatively low activities. The results also show that in single-patient studies, the method is robust for the irregular boundary of breast tissue and provides a distinct improvement in image quality.