The potential of a medium-cost long axial FOV PET system for nuclear medicine departments

Vandenberghe, Stefaan; Karakatsanis, Nicolas; Akl, M. Abi; Maebe, Jens; Surti, Suleman; Dierckx, Rudi; Pryma, Daniel A.; Nehmeh, Sadek; Bouhali, O.; Karp, Joel S.

doi:10.1007/s00259-022-05981-9

Cited by 15 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…In figure 9 we summarize relative sensitivity and costs for fixed AFOV scanner designs: a standard PET scanner design that uses 20 mm thick LSO crystals, a standard PET scanner with axial gaps corresponding to 40% of the active ring width, a PET scanner using 10 mm thick LSO crystals, and a PET scanner using 20 mm thick BGO crystals. Developing scanners with gaps (or more generally, incomplete detector coverage) is one way to reduce cost of long AFOV PET systems (Vandenberghe et al 2023). For the calculations, the scanner with axial gaps is modelled on the PPEx scanner where initial DAQ limitations restricted full scanner ring readout, but did not have an impact on image quality or quantitative accuracy beyond that of reduced intrinsic sensitivity (50%).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evaluation of cost-effective system designs for long axial field-of-view PET scanners

2023

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Objective. Current commercial PET scanners have excellent performance and diagnostic image quality primarily due to improvements in scanner sensitivity and time-of-flight (TOF) resolution. Recent years have seen the development of total-body (TB) PET scanners with longer axial field-of-view (AFOV) that increase sensitivity for single organ imaging, and also image more of the patient in a single bed position thereby enabling multi-organ dynamic imaging. While studies have shown significant capabilities of these systems, cost will be a major factor in their widespread adoption in the clinic. Here we evaluate alternative designs that achieve many advantages of long AFOV PET while utilizing cost-effective detector hardware. Approach. We utilize Monte Carlo simulations and clinically relevant lesion detectability metric to study the impact of scintillator type (LSO or BGO), scintillator thickness (10-20 mm), and TOF resolution on resultant image quality in a 72 cm long scanner. Detector TOF resolution was varied based on current scanner performance, as well as expected future performance from detector designs that currently hold most promise for scaling into a scanner. Main results. Results indicate that BGO is competitive with LSO (both 20 mm thick) if we assume that it uses TOF (e.g., Cerenkov timing with 450 ps fwhm and Lorentzian distribution) and the LSO scanner has TOF resolution similar to the latest PMT-based scanners (~ 500-650 ps). Alternatively, a system using 10 mm thick LSO with 150 ps TOF resolution can also provide similar performance. Both these alternative systems can provide cost savings (25-33%) relative to a scanner using 20 mm LSO with ~50% of effective sensitivity, but still 500-700% higher than a conventional AFOV scanner. Significance. Our results have relevance to the development of long AFOV PET, where reduced cost of these alternative designs can provide wider accessibility for use in situations requiring imaging of multiple organs simultaneously.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While studies have shown significant performance gains with these systems, cost remains prohibitive for most clinical and research sites. Hence, there is potential to develop new long AFOV systems that provide all the advantages of TB-PET imaging at a reasonable cost (Vandenberghe 2023).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of cost-effective system designs for long axial field-of-view PET scanners

2023

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“…Towards a longer, less costly AFOV scanning geometry Due to the high cost of more extended AFOV PET systems, various design solutions have been proposed to benefit from most of the advantages of total body PET (TB-PET) while reducing the total manufacturing cost. These different designs are discussed in this article [188]. The first optimal solution that can be adopted is to build a scanner with an average axial FOV of around 60 to 70 cm in length, which is the average distance between the brain and heart of a human or the total length of the torso.…”

Section: Scanner Diametermentioning

confidence: 99%

The detection instrumentation and geometric design of clinical PET scanner: towards better performance and broader clinical applications

El Ouaridi,

Ait Elcadi,

Mkimel

et al. 2024

Biomed. Phys. Eng. Express

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Positron emission tomography (PET) is a powerful medical imaging modality used in nuclear medicine to diagnose and monitor various clinical diseases in patients. It is more sensitive and produces a highly quantitative mapping of the three-dimensional biodistribution of positron-emitting radiotracers inside the human body. The underlying technology is constantly evolving, and recent advances in detection instrumentation and PET scanner design have significantly improved the medical diagnosis capabilities of this imaging modality, making it more efficient and opening the way to broader, innovative, and promising clinical applications. Some significant achievements related to detection instrumentation include introducing new scintillators and photodetectors as well as developing innovative detector designs and coupling configurations. Other advances in scanner design include moving towards a cylindrical geometry, 3D acquisition mode, and the trend towards a wider axial field of view and a shorter diameter. Further research on PET camera instrumentation and design will be required to advance this technology by improving its performance and extending its clinical applications while optimising radiation dose, image acquisition time, and manufacturing cost. This article comprehensively reviews the various parameters of instrumentation and PET system design. Firstly, an overview of the historical innovation of the PET system has been presented, focusing on instrumental technology. Secondly, we have characterised the main performance parameters of current clinical PET and detailed recent instrumental innovations and trends that affect these performances and clinical practice. Finally, prospects for this medical imaging modality are presented and discussed. This overview of the PET system's instrumental parameters enables us to draw solid conclusions on achieving the best possible performance for the different needs of different clinical applications.

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“…The question is whether the revived tracers are good enough to justify these extra costs and whether patients and healthcare insurances are willing to pay for this. The development of inexpensive extended FOV PET with new lower cost elements may have a critical role in the coming years [34].…”

Section: High Costs Of An Extended Fov Cameramentioning

confidence: 99%

Will extended field-of-view PET/CT depopulate the graveyard of failed PET radiopharmaceuticals?

2022

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With the rapid emergence of extended Field-of-View PET-cameras several new applications for radiopharmaceuticals become within reach. Main reason is the significant increase of the sensitivity of the PET-camera so that much less radioactivity can be administered. Issues that that hampered development or use of PET-radiopharmaceuticals become realistic again. Molar activity requirements can become less strict. New low-yielding radiochemistry methods may become applicable. Carbon-11 labelled compounds can revive and potentially be shipped to nearby PET-facilities. PET-radiopharmaceuticals with slow kinetics in comparison to their half life can still be used. As additional infrastructure and equipment will likely remain unchanged and keep the same sensitivity therefore there will be issues with kinetic modelling requiring analysis of plasma or metabolites samples with lower count rate. Besides the potential revival of failed radiopharmaceuticals, novel challenges are ahead to develop novel radiochemistry based on thus far unsuitable (low yielding or time consuming) reactions.

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The potential of a medium-cost long axial FOV PET system for nuclear medicine departments

Cited by 15 publications

References 27 publications

Evaluation of cost-effective system designs for long axial field-of-view PET scanners

Evaluation of cost-effective system designs for long axial field-of-view PET scanners

The detection instrumentation and geometric design of clinical PET scanner: towards better performance and broader clinical applications

Will extended field-of-view PET/CT depopulate the graveyard of failed PET radiopharmaceuticals?

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