Initial Results of a Positron Tomograph for Prostate Imaging

We present the status and initial images of a positron tomograph for prostate imaging that centers a patient between a pair of external curved detector banks (ellipse: 45 cm minor, 70 cm major axis). The distance between detector banks adjusts to allow patient access and to position the detectors as closely as possible for maximum sensitivity with patients of various sizes. Each bank is composed of two axial rows of 20 CTI PET Systems HR+ block detectors for a total of 80 detectors in the camera. Compared to an ECAT HR PET system operating in 3D mode, our camera uses about one-quarter the number of detectors and has approximately the same sensitivity for a central point source, because our detectors are close to the patient. The individual detectors are angled in the plane to point towards the prostate to reduce resolution degradation in that region. The detectors are read out by modified CTI data acquisition electronics. We have completed construction of the gantry and electronics, have developed detector calibration and data acquisition software, and are taking coincidence data. We demonstrate that we can clearly visualize a "prostate" in a simple phantom. Reconstructed images of two phantoms are shown