Abstract: PETbox is a low cost bench top preclinical PET scanner dedicated to pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic mouse studies. A prototype system was developed at our institute, and this manuscript characterizes the performance of the prototype system.
Abstract: PETbox is a low-cost benchtop PET scanner dedicated to high throughput preclinical imaging that is currently under development at our institute. This paper presents the design and characterization of the detectors that are used in the PETbox system. In this work, bismuth germanate scintillator was used for the detector, taking advantage of its high stopping power, high photoelectric event fraction, lack of intrinsic background radiation and low cost. The detector block was segmented into a pixelated array consisting of 20 × 44 elements, with a crystal pitch of 2.2 mm and a crystal cross section of 2 mm × 2 mm. The effective area of the array was 44 mm × 96.8 mm. The array was coupled to two Hamamatsu H8500 position sensitive photomultiplier tubes, forming a flat-panel type detector head with a sensitive area large enough to cover the whole body of a typical laboratory mouse. Two such detector heads were constructed and their performance was characterized. For one detector head, the energy resolution ranged from 16.1% to 38.5% full width at half maximum (FWHM), with a mean of 20.1%; for the other detector head, the energy resolution ranged from 15.5% to 42.7% FWHM, with a mean of 19.6%. The intrinsic spatial resolution was measured to range from 1.55 mm to 2.39 mm FWHM along the detector short axis and from 1.48 mm to 2.33 mm FWHM along the detector long axis, with an average of 1.78 mm. Coincidence timing resolution for the detector pair was measured to be 4.1 ns FWHM. These measurement results show that the detectors are suitable for our specific application.
Abstract: Geometry and tracking (GEANT4) is a Monte Carlo package designed for high energy physics experiments. It is used as the basis layer for Monte Carlo simulations of nuclear medicine acquisition systems in GEANT4 Application for Tomographic Emission (GATE). GATE allows the user to realistically model experiments using accurate physics models and time synchronization for detector movement through a script language contained in a macro file. The downside of this high accuracy is long computation time. This paper describes a platform independent computing approach for running GATE simulations on a cluster of computers in order to reduce the overall simulation time. Our software automatically creates fully resolved, nonparametrized macros accompanied with an on-the-fly generated cluster specific submit file used to launch the simulations. The scalability of GATE simulations on a cluster is investigated for two imaging modalities, positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). Due to a higher sensitivity, PET simulations are characterized by relatively high data output rates that create rather large output files. SPECT simulations, on the other hand, have lower data output rates but require a long collimator setup time. Both of these characteristics hamper scalability as a function of the number of CPUs. The scalability of PET simulations is improved here by the development of a fast output merger. The scalability of SPECT simulations is improved by greatly reducing the collimator setup time. Accordingly, these two new developments result in higher scalability for both PET and SPECT simulations and reduce the computation time to more practical values.
Abstract: Inevitable discrepancies between the mouse tissue optical properties assumed by an experimenter and the actual physiological values may affect the tomographic localization of bioluminescent sources. In a previous work, the simplifying assumption of optically homogeneous tissues led to inaccurate localization of deep sources. Improved results may be obtained if a mouse anatomical map is provided by a high-resolution imaging modality and optical properties are assigned to segmented tissues. In this work, the feasibility of this approach was explored by simulating the effect of different magnitude optical property errors on the image formation process of a combined optical-PET system. Some comparisons were made with corresponding simulations using higher spatial resolution data that are typically attainable by CCD cameras. In addition, simulation results provided insights on some of the experimental conditions that could lead to poor localization of bioluminescent sources. They also provided a rough guide on how accurately tissue optical properties need to be known in order to achieve correct localization of point sources with increasing tissue depth under low background noise conditions.
Abstract: The feasibility and limits in performing tomographic bioluminescence imaging with a combined optical-PET (OPET) system were explored by simulating its image formation process. A micro-MRI based virtual mouse phantom was assigned appropriate tissue optical properties to each of its segmented internal organs at wavelengths spanning the emission spectrum of the firefly luciferase at 37 degrees C. The TOAST finite-element code was employed to simulate the diffuse transport of photons emitted from bioluminescence sources in the mouse. OPET measurements were simulated for single-point, two-point and distributed bioluminescence sources located in different organs such as the liver, the kidneys and the gut. An expectation maximization code was employed to recover the intensity and location of these simulated sources. It was found that spectrally resolved measurements were necessary in order to perform tomographic bioluminescence imaging. The true location of emission sources could be recovered if the mouse background optical properties were known a priori. The assumption of a homogeneous optical property background proved inadequate for describing photon transport in optically heterogeneous tissues and led to inaccurate source localization in the reconstructed images. The simulation results pointed out specific methodological challenges that need to be addressed before a practical implementation of OPET-based bioluminescence tomography is achieved.
Abstract: Attenuation correction is one of the important corrections required for quantitative positron emission tomography (PET). This work will compare the quantitative accuracy of attenuation correction using a simple global scale factor with traditional transmission-based methods acquired either with a small animal PET or a small animal x-ray computed tomography (CT) scanner. Two phantoms (one mouse-sized and one rat-sized) and two animal subjects (one mouse and one rat) were scanned in CTI Concorde Microsystem's microPET Focus for emission and transmission data and in ImTek's MicroCAT II for transmission data. PET emission image values were calibrated against a scintillation well counter. Results indicate that the scale factor method of attenuation correction places the average measured activity concentration about the expected value, without correcting for the cupping artefact from attenuation. Noise analysis in the phantom studies with the PET-based method shows that noise in the transmission data increases the noise in the corrected emission data. The CT-based method was accurate and delivered low-noise images suitable for both PET data correction and PET tracer localization.
Abstract: Monte Carlo simulation is an essential tool in emission tomography that can assist in the design of new medical imaging devices, the optimization of acquisition protocols and the development or assessment of image reconstruction algorithms and correction techniques. GATE, the Geant4 Application for Tomographic Emission, encapsulates the Geant4 libraries to achieve a modular, versatile, scripted simulation toolkit adapted to the field of nuclear medicine. In particular, GATE allows the description of time-dependent phenomena such as source or detector movement, and source decay kinetics. This feature makes it possible to simulate time curves under realistic acquisition conditions and to test dynamic reconstruction algorithms. This paper gives a detailed description of the design and development of GATE by the OpenGATE collaboration, whose continuing objective is to improve, document and validate GATE by simulating commercially available imaging systems for PET and SPECT. Large effort is also invested in the ability and the flexibility to model novel detection systems or systems still under design. A public release of GATE licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License can be downloaded at http:/www-lphe.epfl.ch/GATE/. Two benchmarks developed for PET and SPECT to test the installation of GATE and to serve as a tutorial for the users are presented. Extensive validation of the GATE simulation platform has been started, comparing simulations and measurements on commercially available acquisition systems. References to those results are listed. The future prospects towards the gridification of GATE and its extension to other domains such as dosimetry are also discussed.
Abstract: A combined optical positron emission tomography (OPET) system is capable of both optical and PET imaging in the same setting, and it can provide information/interpretation not possible in single-mode imaging. The scintillator array here serves the dual function of coupling the optical signal from bioluminescence/fluorescence to the photodetector and also of channeling optical scintillations from the gamma rays. We report simulation results of the PET part of OPET using GATE, a Geant4 simulation package. The purpose of this investigation is the definition of the geometric parameters of the OPET tomograph. OPET is composed of six detector blocks arranged in a hexagonal ring-shaped pattern with an inner radius of 15.6 mm. Each detector consists of a two-dimensional array of 8 × 8 scintillator crystals each measuring 2 × 2 × 10 mm(3). Monte Carlo simulations were performed using the GATE software to measure absolute sensitivity, depth of interaction, and spatial resolution for two ring configurations, with and without gantry rotations, two crystal materials, and several crystal lengths. Images were reconstructed with filtered backprojection after angular interleaving and transverse one-dimensional interpolation of the sinogram. We report absolute sensitivities nearly seven times that of the prototype microPET at the center of field of view and 2.0 mm tangential and 2.3 mm radial resolutions with gantry rotations up to an 8.0 mm radial offset. These performance parameters indicate that the imaging spatial resolution and sensitivity of the OPET system will be suitable for high-resolution and high-sensitivity small-animal PET imaging.
