Preliminary studies on the design and simulation of high resolution small animal PET scanners with octagonal geometry

We present a preliminary study on the design of a small animal positron emission tomograph with octagonal geometry. The main goal is to evaluate the impact of critical design parameters on the quality of the reconstructed images. Monte Carlo simulations take into account the depth of interaction in individual crystals. The activity sources are simulated as parametric distributions within the field of view and images are reconstructed with iterative algorithms based on the estimation of maximum likelihood and Bayesian regularization. The probability system matrix used by these algorithms is also calculated based on statistical models and Monte Carlo simulation. 2D and 3D techniques have been employed.