Investigation of an internal PET probe for prostate imaging

We present a Monte Carlo simulation study of an application-specific positron emission tomography (PET) imaging device for the prostate that is capable of higher spatial resolution and sensitivity than a conventional PET scanner. The internal detector consists of an array of 1 mm×1 mm×3 mm LSO crystals coupled with avalanche photodiodes. The internal detector works in coincidence with a conventional external PET scanner to record two sets of coincidences: those occurring between the internal detector and the external ring, and conventional PET coincidences occurring between detectors of the external ring. Because of its proximity to the prostate, information from the internal detector supports both high resolution (∼1 mm FWHM) and efficiency while coincidence events recorded solely by the external detector provide complete tomographic data for image reconstruction.