Development of depth encoding small animal <scp>PET</scp> detectors using dual‐ended readout of pixelated scintillator arrays with Si<scp>PM</scp>s

Kuang, Zhonghua; Sang, Ziru; Wang, Xiaohui; Fu, Xin; Ren, Na; Zhang, Xian‐Ming; Zheng, Yingkui; Yang, Qian; Hu, Zhanli; Du, Junwei; Liang, Dong; Liu, Xin; Zheng, Hairong; Yang, Yongfeng

doi:10.1002/mp.12722

Cited by 43 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 44 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…To achieve a high spatial resolution, detector modules composed of discrete small detector components are commonly utilized to increase the number of samples taken in the spatial domain (Cutler et al 1992, Stortz et al 2017. However, joints or gaps (dead areas) existing between the detector components and/or modules reduce the sensitivity and, in some cases, produce artifacts (Nagarkar et al 2004, Kuang et al 2018. Moreover, manufacturing detector modules with very small scintillator elements to enhance the spatial resolution would considerably add to the cost of the PET scanner.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Novel preclinical PET geometrical concept using a monolithic scintillator crystal offering concurrent enhancement in spatial resolution and detection sensitivity: a simulation study

Sanaat

Arabi

et al. 2020

Phys. Med. Biol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We propose a small-animal PET scanner design combining two sets of monolithic crystals with two different thicknesses. The detectors with thinner crystals serve for high resolution imaging while the thicker crystals retain the detection efficiency. Two small-animal PET models based on 10 and 12 detector blocks made of monolithic LYSO crystals were implemented in the GEANT4 Monte Carlo toolkit. In each of these models, half of the detector blocks consisted of a crystal thickness of 10 mm whereas the second half had a crystal thickness of 2 mm. The scintillator crystals were coupled to SiPM arrays. For the first model, the detector blocks were arranged in a full-ring polygonal geometry in such a way that detector blocks with the same thickness were sitting opposite to each other. For the second model, detector blocks with different crystal thicknesses were facing each other. The performance of the proposed PET models was assessed using standard parameters, including spatial resolution, sensitivity and noise equivalent count rate. Comparison was made with conventional PET models with crystal thicknesses of 2 mm, 6 mm and 10 mm. PET models with a crystal thickness of 2 mm led to the highest spatial resolution (up to 0.6 mm FWHM) at the cost of poor absolute sensitivity (2.5%). On the other hand, PET models with a crystal thickness of 10 mm led to good detection efficiency (4.4%), yet with substantial degradation of spatial resolution (1.2 mm FWHM). The proposed PET models with thick and thin crystals exhibited an optimal trade-off between spatial resolution and sensitivity outperforming the PET model with fixed 6 mm crystal by achieving a spatial resolution of 0.7 mm and absolute sensitivity of 3.7%. The novel proposed PET design concept achieved an optimal trade-off between the sensitivity and spatial resolution by combining two sets of monolithic crystals.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Novel preclinical PET geometrical concept using a monolithic scintillator crystal offering concurrent enhancement in spatial resolution and detection sensitivity: a simulation study

Sanaat

Arabi

et al. 2020

Phys. Med. Biol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…On a smaller scale, preclinical PET systems already achieve nearly perfect spatial resolution uniformity with DOI resolutions on the order of 1 − 2 mm using detector module configurations that would be impractical for human scanners (i.e., thin crystals, dualended readout, etc.) [36][37][38][39], but our CNN method may enable more cost-effective preclinical systems to be developed with similar DOI resolution. In addition, a recent study demonstrated how sub-2 mm DOI resolution can enable uniform spatial resolution on the order of 1 mm due to drastically reduced parallax error [40].…”

Section: Accepted Articlementioning

confidence: 99%

Sub‐2 mm depth of interaction localization in PET detectors with prismatoid light guide arrays and single‐ended readout using convolutional neural networks

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose Depth of interaction (DOI) readout in PET imaging has been researched in efforts to mitigate parallax error, which would enable the development of small diameter, high‐resolution PET scanners. However, DOI PET has not yet been commercialized due to the lack of practical, cost‐effective, and data efficient DOI readout methods. The rationale for this study was to develop a supervised machine learning algorithm for DOI estimation in PET that can be trained and deployed on unique sets of crystals. Methods Depth collimated flood data was experimentally acquired using a Na‐22 source with a depth‐encoding single‐ended readout Prism‐PET module consisting of lutetium yttrium orthosilicate (LYSO) crystals coupled 4‐to‐1 to 3×3 mm2 silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) pixels on one end and a segmented prismatoid light guide array on the other end. A convolutional neural network (CNN) was trained to perform DOI estimation on data from center, edge and corner crystals in the Prism‐PET module using (a) all non‐zero readout pixels and (b) only the 4 highest readout signals per event. CNN testing was performed on data from crystals not included in CNN training. Results An average DOI resolution of 1.84 mm full width at half maximum (FWHM) across all crystals was achieved when using all readout signals per event with the CNN compared to 3.04 mm FWHM DOI resolution using classical estimation. When using only the 4 highest signals per event, an average DOI resolution of 1.92 mm FWHM was achieved, representing only a 4% dropoff in CNN performance compared to using all non‐zero pixels per event. Conclusions Our CNN‐based DOI estimation algorithm provides the best reported DOI resolution in a single‐ended readout module and can be readily deployed on crystals not used for model training.

show abstract

“…OSITRON Emission Tomography (PET) [1][2] is a noninvasive medical imaging technique used to evaluate the metabolism level, biochemical reaction, and functional activity of various organs quantitatively and dynamically. In the field of biomedicine, studies need to be completed on small animals before extrapolation toward the humans, which requires high-quality small animal PET systems [3] [4]. High demands on the performance of their readout electronics Manuscript include high resolution of position, time, and energy measurement, real-time signal processing ability, as well as compatibility for multiple working modes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Real-Time FPGA-Based Digital Signal Processing and Correction for a Small Animal PET

Liu

Chen

et al. 2019

IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Small animal Positron Emission Tomography (PET)is dedicated to small animal imaging, which requires high position and energy precision, as well as good flexibility and efficiency of the electronics. This paper presents the design of a digital signal processing logic for a marmoset brain PET system based on LYSO crystal arrays, SiPMs, and the resistive network readout method. We implement 32-channel signal processing in a single Xilinx Artix-7 Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The logic is designed to support four online modes which are regular data processing mode, flood map construction mode, energy spectrum construction mode, and raw data mode. Several functions are integrated, including two-dimensional (2D) raw position calculation, crystal locating, events filtering, and synchronization detection. Furthermore, a series of online corrections is also integrated, such as photon peak correction to 511 keV and time measurement result correction with crystal granularity. A Gigabit Ethernet interface is utilized for data transfer, Look-Up Tables (LUTs) configuration, and command issuing. The pipeline logic works at 125 MHz with a signal processing capability beyond the required data rate of 1,000,000 events/s/channel. A series of initial tests are conducted. The results indicate that the logic design meets the application requirement.

show abstract

Development of depth encoding small animal PET detectors using dual‐ended readout of pixelated scintillator arrays with SiPMs

Cited by 43 publications

References 44 publications

Novel preclinical PET geometrical concept using a monolithic scintillator crystal offering concurrent enhancement in spatial resolution and detection sensitivity: a simulation study

Novel preclinical PET geometrical concept using a monolithic scintillator crystal offering concurrent enhancement in spatial resolution and detection sensitivity: a simulation study

Sub‐2 mm depth of interaction localization in PET detectors with prismatoid light guide arrays and single‐ended readout using convolutional neural networks

Real-Time FPGA-Based Digital Signal Processing and Correction for a Small Animal PET

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About