Exploring a promising design for the next generation time-of-flight PET detector

探索下一代飞行时间 PET 探测器的有前途的设计

基本信息

批准号：
10171564
负责人：
CRAIG S LEVIN
金额：
$ 51.63万
依托单位：
STANFORD UNIVERSITY
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
财政年份：
2017
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2017-06-01 至 2024-05-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10171564
关键词：
3-Dimensional Clinic Clinical Collection Communities Compton radiation Coupled Crystallization Data Detection Digital Signal Processing Dimensions Dose Electronics Elements Event Face Future Goals Hot Spot Image Image Enhancement Imaging Phantoms Incidence Lesion Light Location Lutetium Measurement Measures Methods Noise Optics Output Patients Performance Photons Positioning Attribute Positron-Emission Tomography Process Production Radiation Dose Unit Recovery Research Resolution Scanning Side Signal Transduction Silicon System Techniques Technology Time Tissues Tracer Variant Visualization Width absorption analog attenuation base cancer imaging cost effective data acquisition design detector experimental study image reconstruction imaging study improved innovation kinematics next generation novel photomultiplier photon-counting detector preservation prototype response scale up statistics tomography tumor molecular fingerprint uptake

项目摘要

Project Summary/Abstract We propose to study a promising candidate for the next generation time-of-flight (TOF)-positron emission tomography (PET) annihilation photon detector. By enabling significant increases in the reconstructed image signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), TOF-PET has demonstrated substantial clinical impact on the visualization and quantification of molecular signatures of cancer in patients. In particular it has been shown to improve image quality and accuracy in count starved and contrast limited lesion detection scenarios. The effective photon sensitivity boost provided by TOF can also be exploited to significantly reduce injected dose to the patient and/or study duration, factors that would make PET more practical, cost-effective, and safe for a variety of clinical cancer imaging applications. Thus, studies that further advance the TOF-PET technique, and photon sensitivity in general, are highly worthwhile. The key to better TOF-PET performance is to improve the annihilation photon pair coincidence time resolution (CTR) measured between any two detection elements in the system, which has been a focus of research for the past two decades. Current commercially available PET systems achieve a CTR of roughly 350 to 800 ps full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM). A goal of this proposal is to employ a novel scintillation detection configuration in order to achieve 100 ps FWHM CTR, without compromising other important performance parameters. This novel configuration also enables another capability not possible with the conventional PET detector: The ability to measure the energy and three-dimensional (3D) position of one or more annihilation photon interactions in the detector. Owing to the fact that most incoming 511 keV photons undergo inter-crystal Compton scatter in the detectors, we can exploit the kinematics of that process to estimate the photon angle-of-incidence. If successful, that capability enables us to accurately position the first interaction of such multi-crystal events, but also offers the potential to retain a high fraction of photon events that are normally rejected by a conventional PET system, such as single (unpaired) photons, random coincidences, tissue-scatter coincidences, and multiple (>2) photon coincidences. Since these normally-discarded events are over 10-fold more probable than true coincidence events in a standard PET study, this 3D position sensitive detector shows promise as another method to greatly boost photon sensitivity. If successful, this resulting substantial photon sensitivity increase, along with the substantial image SNR enhancement possible with 100 ps CTR would enable PET to be more sensitive, accurate, and practical for cancer imaging. In this project we will design and develop these next-generation detectors, integrate these modules into a prototype partial-ring PET system, and compare image quality and accuracy available with this partial-ring system to a state-of-the-art whole body TOF-PET system currently installed in our imaging clinic.

项目摘要/摘要我们建议研究下一代飞行时间（TOF）的有前途的候选人 - 峰值发射断层扫描（PET）歼灭光子检测器。通过重建的重大增加图像信噪比（SNR）和对比度比（CNR），TOF-PET已证明对癌症分子特征的可视化和定量的实质性临床影响患者。特别是已显示它可以提高图像质量和准确性，而计数和对比有限的病变检测方案。 TOF提供的有效光子灵敏度增强也可以利用以显着减少对患者和/或研究持续时间的注射剂量将使宠物更加实用，成本效益，并且可以安全地对各种临床癌症成像申请。因此，研究进一步推进TOF-PET技术和光子灵敏度的研究将军，非常值得。更好的TOF-PET性能的关键是改善歼灭光子对重合时间分辨率（CTR）在任何两个检测元件之间测量在过去的二十年中，系统一直是研究的重点。当前的市售 PET系统的CTR达到了大约350至800 PS的全宽度最大宽度最大（FWHM）。这个目标建议是采用新颖的闪烁检测构型，以实现100 ps fwhm ctr，不损害其他重要的性能参数。这种新颖的配置也可以启用常规宠物探测器不可能的另一个能力：测量能量和检测器中一个或多个an灭光子相互作用的三维（3D）位置。由于最传入的511 keV光子在检测器中散布了晶体间康普顿，这一事实，我们可以利用该过程的运动学来估计光子的嵌入角。如果成功，那能力使我们能够准确定位此类多晶体事件的第一个相互作用，但也提供保留通常被常规PET拒绝的大量光子事件的潜力系统，例如单个（未配对）光子，随机巧合，组织碎片的巧合和多个（> 2）光子一致。由于这些正常缺乏的事件多于10倍以上在标准PET研究中，这3D位置敏感探测器可能比真实的巧合事件。承诺作为大大提高光子灵敏度的另一种方法。如果成功，这将导致实质性光子灵敏度的提高，以及可实现的图像SNR增强功能，使用100 ps CTR将使PET对癌症成像更敏感，准确且实用。在这个项目中我们将设计和开发这些下一代探测器，将这些模块整合到原型部分环宠物系统，并比较此部分环系统可用的图像质量和准确性目前在我们的成像诊所中安装的最先进的全身TOF-PET系统。

项目成果

期刊论文数量（6）

专著数量（0）

科研奖励数量（0）

会议论文数量（0）

专利数量（0）

Investigation of Electronic Signal Processing Chains for a Prototype TOF-PET System With 100-ps Coincidence Time Resolution.

DOI：
10.1109/trpms.2021.3124756
发表时间：
2022-07
期刊：
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON RADIATION AND PLASMA MEDICAL SCIENCES
影响因子：
4.4
作者：
Pourashraf, Shirin;Gonzalez-Montoro, Andrea;Lee, Min Sun;Cates, Joshua W.;Won, Jun Yeon;Lee, Jae Sung;Levin, Craig S.
通讯作者：
Levin, Craig S.

Study of optical reflectors for a 100ps coincidence time resolution TOF-PET detector design.