Construction and Evaluation of a Prototype High Resolution, Silicon Photomultiplier-Based, Tandem Positron Emission Tomography System

While the performance of most current commercially available PET scanners is sufficient for many standard clinical applications, some specific tasks likely require specialized imaging systems. The goal of this project is to explore the capabilities and limitations of a small, high-resolution prototype system for obtaining PET images. The scanner consists of a tandem of detectors. One is a small detector consisting of a 20 × 20 array of 0.7 × 0.7 × mm³ (pitch 0.8 mm) LYSO elements. The scintillator array is coupled to an array of silicon photomultipliers. The second detector is a 96 × 72 array of 2×2×15 mm³ (pitch=2.1 mm) LYSO elements coupled to PSPMTs. Separation between the two devices is 180 mm. The detectors are operated in coincidence with each other. Image reconstruction is performed using a limited angle, Maximum Likelihood Expectation Maximization (MLEM) algorithm. Evaluation of the device included measurements of spatial resolution and detection sensitivity as a function of distance. The transaxial radial and tangential spatial resolution of the system ranged from 0.6 mm to 0.9 mm FWHM; axial resolution ranged from 2.7 mm to 4.6 mm FWHM. Detection sensitivity ranged from 0.05 to 0.28%. Spatial resolution and field-of-view vary as a function of distance from the small detector. The tandem detector insert permitted differentiation of the smallest (1 mm diameter) rods in a mini-hot rod phantom. The results indicate that a tandem PET imaging scheme can be potentially employed in applications where high-resolution images over a small region are required.