基于NEMA NU 4-2008标准的小动物PET/CT系统性能评估

论文信息

1.论文摘要

2.实验结论分析

实验设备：

图一PET系统由32个检测块组成，这些检测块排列在四个相邻环中，环直径为129 mm（有效环直径为81 mm），轴向范围为122 mm。单个探测器块包含两个晶体模块，由24×24个晶体（每个晶体0.943×0.943×10 mm3）组成的阵列组成，晶体的中心距为1.028 mm。

能量分辨率：

The mean energy resolution of the whole PET/CT system is 15.3%, with the best and worst energy resolutions being 7.4% and 49.8% respectively.

空间分辨率：

The measured FWHM of 22Na point source using FBP in three directions are shown in Figure 3a. The FWHM resolutions are between 0.82 and 1.94 mm. The FWHM volumetric resolutions for the axial FOV and 1/4 axial FOV from center are 1.16 and 1.56 mm3 respectively. Figure 3b shows the FWHM of the point source after 3D-OSEM reconstruction with scatter and random corrections.

Figure 4 shows the PET images of the micro Derenzo phantom, and the CT image after injecting Ioverol 350 developer. The tangential resolution is the best when using 3D-OSEM (10 subsets, 5 iterations), between 0.6 and 0.5 mm. The radial resolution

is 0.7 mm, and the axial resolution is the worst, between 1.0 and 0.9 mm.

The absolute peak sensitivity of the system is 6.8% and maximum sensitivity is 0.062 cps/Bq with the energy window of 350–750 keV at the center of FOV, while the absolute peak sensitivity value is 7.7% and maximum sensitivity is 0.070 cps/Bq with the energy window of 200–750 keV. Figure 5 shows the sensitivity profiles measured along the system axially using the 22Na

point source.

The SFs for the mouse- and rat-like phantoms are 8.2% and 12.1% respectively. The total, true, random,and scatter coincidence count rates performance for two phantoms are shown in Figure 6. The NECR is 1343.72 kcps at 69 MBq for the mouse-like phantom, and 640.32 kcps for the rat-like phantom at 53 MBq, whereas the peak true count rate is 1666.94 kcps at 69 MBq and 1038.48 kcps at 113 MBq for mouse- and rat-like phantoms, respectively.

影像学研究：

The PET images of the IQ phantom reconstructed using MLEM are shown in Figure 7a, with even the smallest (i.e., the 1-mm) rod visualized. The average, maximum, minimum activity concentration and the %STD in the uniform area are shown in Table 2. RCs and %STD for five rods of different size are shown in Figure 7b. The SOR is 0.20 (19.47%) for the water-filled chamber and 0.14 (17.75%) for the air-filled chamber.

Figure 8 shows coronal-section PET and CT images of a healthy mouse using PMOD software. Figure 9 shows a clear PET images of the healthy rat brain.

2.讨论

Different PET system designs and implementations will lead to differences in the sensitivity of systems. Compared with previous preclinical systems, MetisTM PET/CT system has a smaller scintillation crystal size, smaller detection ring diameter, and larger axial extent, which increases the solid angle coverage and therefore increases the system sensitivity.Owing to the increased sensitivity, the NECRs have also been significantly improved. The system peak NECR values are 1343.72 kcps for the mouse-like phantom and 640.32 kcps for the rat-like phantom, which are better than most commercial small animal PET/CT systems.