A 3-D Monte Carlo simulation of a small animal positron emission tomograph with millimeter spatial resolution

Author

Bevilacqua, A. ; Bollini, D. ; Del Guerra, A. ; Di Domencio, G. ; Galli, M. ; Scandola, M. ; Zavattini, G.

Author_Institution

Dipt. di Fisica, INFN, Bologna, Italy

Volume

46

Issue

3

fYear

1999

fDate

6/1/1999 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

697

Lastpage

701

Abstract

We have used the EGS4 Monte Carlo code of W.R. Nelson et al. (1985) to simulate the performance of a positron emission tomograph (PET) for small animals. The PET scanner is a four-head detector, made of matrices of 400 YAP:Ce (yttrium aluminium perovskite doped with cerium) finger-like crystals (2×2×30 mm³ each), coupled to Hamamatsu R2486-06 position-sensitive photomultipliers. 3D reconstruction algorithms have been applied to the 3D simulated data. The reconstructed volume was 2×2×2 cm³, the same as that of the reference mouse brain. The Monte Carlo results show that a spatial resolution below 2 mm (FWHM) can be obtained over the 2×2×2 cm³ volume with a sensitivity of about 600 counts/(μCis) for a gantry diameter of 15 cm and a threshold of 50 keV

Keywords

Monte Carlo methods; biology computing; brain; digital simulation; image reconstruction; image resolution; photomultipliers; positron emission tomography; veterinary medicine; zoology; 15 cm; 3D Monte Carlo simulation; 3D image reconstruction algorithms; 50 keV; EGS4 Monte Carlo code; Hamamatsu R2486-06 position-sensitive photomultipliers; PET scanner; YAP:Ce; YAlO3:Ce; finger-like crystals; four-head detector; full-width half-maximum spatial resolution; gantry diameter; mouse brain; performance; positron emission tomography; reconstructed volume; sensitivity; small animal; threshold; Aluminum; Animals; Cerium; Crystals; Monte Carlo methods; Photomultipliers; Position sensitive particle detectors; Positron emission tomography; Radioactive decay; Yttrium;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9499

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/23.775601

Filename

775601