Performance comparison of dual-head PEM scanner by Monte Carlo simulation

To evaluate the effects of the flat panel dimension on the overall performance qualitatively and quantitatively, the performance of two dual-head Positron Emission Mammography (PEM) cameras with different configurations, the 3×3 modules system and the 1×3 modules system, has been compared, using Monte Carlo simulation based on the Geant4 Application for Tomographic Emission (GATE) open source software. Besides traditional evaluation methods, imaging capability in terms of spatial resolution and lesion detectability have been integrated into the evaluation. Compared with the 3×3 modules system, the 1×3 modules system produces higher spatial resolution along the direction of the 1-module side but lower resolution along the other direction. No significant difference in small and weak lesion visualization has been noted between two systems. In addition, the slight disadvantage in semi-quantification of the 1×3 modules system can be further compensated by other methods such as increasing the imaging time while still in a practically acceptable range.