Performance characterization of a whole body PET system designed for dynamic cardiac imaging

Specifications were developed for a PET (positron emission tomography) system that emphasizes high-count-rate performance and is specifically designed for the estimation of myocardial perfusion using oxygen-15 water and dynamic imaging protocols. The seven-slice CsF detector array is a one-on-one configuration, and has a reconstructed FOV (field of view) of 52 cm and an axial FOV of 10.7 cm. Wobble and axial translation are used. The gantry and associated electronics were interfaced to a new computer system, data collection and image reconstruction software was developed and the performance of the system was characterized with phantom, animal, and human studies. The system sensitivity is 136000 cts/s/ mu Ci/cm/sup 3/ and the reconstructed resolution is better than 9 mm. Imaging a 20-cm uniform phantom with 4.3 mu Ci/cm/sup 3/, the system collects a total rate of 1.57 Mcts/s with a loss fraction of 0.72 and a ratio of randoms/trues of 0.64. >