González Martínez, Antonio Javier
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Detector blockbased on arrays of 144 SiPMs and monolithic scintillators: A performane study
[EN] We have developed a detector block composed by a monolithic LYSO scintillator coupled to a custom made 12 12 SiPMs array. The design is mainly focused to applications such as Positron Emission Tomography. The readout electronics is based on 3 identical and scalable Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC). We have determined the main performance of the detector block namely spatial, energy, and time resolution but also the system capability to determine the photon depth of interaction, for different crystal surface treatments. Intrinsic detector spatial resolution values as good as 1.7 mm FWHM and energies of 15% for black painted crystals were measured. & 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Effect of noise in CT image reconstruction using QR- Decomposition algorithm
[EN] The QR-Decomposition algorithm for CT 3D image reconstruction uses a linear system of equations to model the CT system response. Linear systems have a condition number that can be used to estimate the image noise. In this work the number of projections and the number of pixels in the detector have been studied to characterize the CT and the linear system of equations. The condition number of the system is estimated for the previous parameters used to generate the CT model with the aim of characterizing how these parameters affect the condition number and therefore bound the image noise level. It is shown that the condition number mainly depends on the size of pixels of the detector rather than the number of projections and this algorithm can be applied to low dose CT 3D image reconstruction without compromising image quality
Performance Evaluation of the Dual Ring MAMMI breast PET
[EN] MAMMI is a dedicated breast positron emission tomograph (PET) based on monolythic LYSO crystals, with a transaxial field of view (FOV) of 170 mm. It has been upgraded by adding a second ring of detectors that extends the axial FOV from 40 mm to 94.4 mm, in order to improve its sensitivity and reduce the acquisition time. In this work we present the performance evaluation of the dual ring MAMMI breast PET and a discussion about the contribution of the addition of a second ring of detectors, the compensation of the detector blur and the increase of the scintillator thickness. Experimental measurements suggested on NEMA NU 4-2008 and NEMA NU 2-2007 have been conveniently adapted to the dimensions of the MAMMI. The addition of the second ring of detectors leads to a rise of the sensitivity from 1.8% to 3.6%. The spatial resolution at one-fourth of the axial FOV (1.5 mm axial, 1.6 mm tangential, 1.7 mm radial) is slightly better than that measured at the axial center (1.9 mm axial, 1.8 mm tangential and radial), because of the 14 mm gap in between detection rings. The results obtained after the evaluation reflect a substantial performance improvement, specially in the absolute sensitivity, because of the changes introduced in the MAMMI PET.
High resolution and sensitivity gamma camera with active septa. A first Monte Carlo study
[EN] Gamma cameras are of great interest due to their high potential in the field of Nuclear Medicine Imaging. They allow for an early diagnosis of reduced size tumors, and also for a wide variety of preclinical studies with the aim of designing more effective treatments against cancer. In this work we propose a significantly improved multi-pinhole collimator gamma camera and perform a first Monte Carlo analysis of its characteristics. Maintaining the configuration of a multi-pinhole collimator with a high degree of overlapping (thus with a high sensitivity), we add a new element, an active septa, that besides acting as a collimator, is able to measure the impact coordinates of the incident photon. This way one is able to unambiguously identify through which pinhole any gamma ray passes before being detected. The result is a high sensitivity and resolution multi-pinhole gamma camera with an arbitrarily large field of view. As a consequence, the final reconstructed image does not suffer from the undesired artifacts or truncation associated to the multiplexing phenomenon. In this study we focus on the development of a system able to visualize in 3D tumors, nodes and metastasis in real time in the operating room with very low dose. We also briefly analyse and propose a novel design for a Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography system.
Characterization of protons accelerated from a 3 TW table-top laser system
[EN] We report on benchmark tests of a 3 TW/50 fs, table-top laser system specifically developed for proton acceleration with an intrinsic pump rate up to 100 Hz. In two series of single-shot measurements differing in pulse energy and contrast the successful operation of the diode pumped laser is demonstrated. Protons have been accelerated up to 1.6 MeV in interactions of laser pulses focused on aluminium and mylar foils between 0.8 and 25 mu m thickness. Their spectral distributions and maximum energies are consistent with former experiments under similar conditions. These results show the suitability of our system and provide a reference for studies of laser targets at high repetition rate and possible applications.
NEMA Performance Evaluation of CareMiBrain dedicated brain PET and Comparison with the whole-body and dedicated brain PET systems
[EN] This article presents system performance studies of the CareMiBrain dedicated brain PET according to NEMA NU 2-2012 (for whole-body PETS) and NU 4-2008 (for preclinical PETs). This scanner is based on monolithic LYSO crystals coupled to silicon photomultipliers. The results obtained for both protocols are compared with current commercial whole body PETs and dedicated brain PETs found in the literature. Spatial resolution, sensitivity, NECR and scatter-fraction are characterized with NEMA standards, as well as an image quality study. A customized image quality phantom is proposed as NEMA phantoms do not fulfil the necessities of dedicated brain PETs. The full-width half maximum of the radial/tangential/ axial spatial resolution of CareMiBrain reconstructed with FBP at 10 and 100 mm from the system center were, respectively, 1.87/1.68/1.39 mm and 1.86/1.91/1.40 mm (NU 2-2012) and 1.58/1.45/1.40 mm and 1.64/1.66/1.44 mm (NU 4-2008). Peak NECR was 49 kcps@287 MBq with a scatter fraction of 48% using NU 2-2012 phantom. The sensitivity was 13.82 cps/kBq at the center of the FOV (NU 2-2012) and 10% (NU 4-2008). Contrast recovery coefficients for customizing image quality phantom were 0.73/0.78/1.14/1.01 for the 4.5/6/9/12 mm diameter rods. The performance characteristics of CareMiBrain are at the top of the current technologies for PET systems. Dedicated brain PET systems significantly improve spatial resolution and sensitivity, but present worse results in count rate measurements and scatter-fraction tests. As for the comparison of preclinical and clinical standards, the results obtained for solid and liquid sources were similar.
Time reconstruction study using tubes of response backprojectors in List Mode algorithms, applied to amonolithic crystals based breast PET
[EN] The LM-EM algorithm has the advantage to calculate the emission probabilities needed for the reconstruction process on the fly, without the need of a pre-calculated system matrix. The reconstruction time for this algorithm strongly depends on the used backprojector and the available statistics. This algorithm when implemented in systems using monolithic crystals to detect gamma radiation allows one to extensively exploit the virtual pixilation feature, not available for systems based on pixilated crystals. In this work we present a backprojector for LM-EM, the TOR method, which achieves a tradeoff between computational efficiency and image quality. Its temporal subset algorithm optimization (LM-OS) has also been implemented in order to achieve real-time reconstructions. To evaluate the performances of LM-OS algorithm with the TOR method backprojector and only with one iteration on the datasets, studies based on the system spatial resolution, uniformity, and contrast coefficients were carried out and they were compared with those obtained with LM-EM and MLEM algorithms using twelve iteration. Finally, a study on reconstruction time using LM-OS has been performed with breast patients data
Calibration and Performance Tests of Detectors for Laser-Accelerated Protons
We present the calibration and performance tests carried out with two detectors for intense proton pulses accelerated by lasers. Most of the procedures were realized with proton beams of 0.46-5.60 MeV from a tandem accelerator. One approach made use of radiochromic films, for which we calibrated the relation between optical density and energy deposition over more than three orders of magnitude. The validity of these results and of our analysis algorithms has been confirmed by controlled irradiation of film stacks and reconstruction of the total beam charge for strongly non-uniform beam profiles. For the spectral analysis of protons from repeated laser shots, we have designed an online monitor based on a plastic scintillator. The resulting signal from a photomultiplier directly measured on a fast oscilloscope is especially useful for time-of-flight applications. Variable optical filters allow for suppression of saturation and an extension of the dynamic range. With pulsed proton beams we have tested the detector response to a wide range of beam intensities from single particles 3 x 10(5) to protons per 100 ns time interval.
Motion Correction of Multi-Frame PET Data
[EN] Motion correction algorithms are necessary in PET studies where the patient cannot remain totally static. Otherwise, artifacts appear in the final reconstructed image, degrading the spatial resolution or even misplacing the radiation distribution source. In this work we propose a new enhanced motion correction algorithm (EMAF) based on the multiple acquisition frames (MAF). This methodology can be applied to two PET system geometries (a ring and a multi-panel system). Using simulated data, the comparison of static and motion corrected profiles shows minimum differences keeping more than 99% of the events after the process, with a minimal inter-frame error (the maximum range of loss counts is around 0.6%). To measure the quality of the correction method, two error metrics as peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR) and intensity matching precision (IMP) are proposed. A Mini-Derenzo in a ring PET system reveals a remarkable improvement both for these two metrics (44.5 dB and 98.7%) when compared to the uncorrected images (41.1 dB and 56%, respectively). An equivalent analysis for a point-like source also shows a sizeable enhancement both in contrast and resolution (64 dB and 98% versus 62.5 dB and 17.9%, PSNR and IMP correspondingly). The proposed algorithm minimizes the image artifacts and its simplicity, independency of PET configuration system and rapid reconstruction and registration times, makes it a useful tool in preclinical PET studies.
EM tomographic image reconstruction using polarvoxels
[EN] The splitting of the field of view (FOV) in polar voxels is proposed in this work in order to obtain an efficient description of a cone-beam computed tomography (CT) scanner. The proposed symmetric-polar pixelation makes it possible to deal with the 3D iterative reconstruction considering a number of projections and voxel sizes typical in CT preclinical imaging. The performance comparison, between the filtered backprojection (FBP) and 3D maximum likelihood expectation maximization (MLEM) reconstruction algorithm for CT, is presented. It is feasible to achieve the hardware spatial resolution limit with the considered pixelation. The image quality achieved with MLEM and FBP have been analyzed. The results obtained with both algorithms in clinical images have been compared too. Although the polar-symmetric pixelation is presented in the context of CT imaging, it can be applied to any other tomographic technique as long as the scan comprises the measurement of an object under several projection angles.