SINGLE-CRYSTAL POSITRON TOMOGRAPH

正电子发射断层扫描(PET)已被证明是有用的 诊断各种神经和心脏疾病。为 神经成像、专用脑部扫描仪的优势在于 更高的灵敏度和更好的空间分辨率，因为它们降低了 孔径大小和探测器间距。 我们提出了一个原型专用大脑的设计和构建。 将在临床神经病学中具有重大优势的扫描仪 成像。扫描仪基于探测器的使用，该探测器由 单晶，连续柱状NaI(T1)晶体。这块65厘米厚的水晶 直径和轴向范围为21厘米，将耦合到大约 160个光电倍增管，以产生具有有用的轴向视场的断层扫描 沿所有三个图像轴的至少12厘米和2毫米数据采样的视图。 使用单一的NaI(T1)晶体不仅显著地 降低了系统复杂性和成本，而且在空间、时序和 能源分辨率。 在项目的第一阶段，制造 圆柱形晶体和检测单个连续的重合 晶体进行了验证。在第二阶段，我们打算建造和测试一个 单晶层析成像仪的原型。

Positron emission tomography (PET) has been shown to be useful in the diagnosis of a wide variety of neurological and cardiac diseases. For neurological imaging, dedicated brain scanners have the advantages of increased sensitivity and better spatial resolution due to their reduced apterture size and detector separation. We propose the design and construction of a prototype dedicated brain scanner which will have significant advantages for clinical neurological imaging. The scanner is based on the use of a detector composed of a single, continuous cylindrical NaI(T1) crystal. This crystal, 65 cm in diameter and 21 cm in its axial extent, would be coupled to approximately 160 photomultipliers to yield a tomographic with a useful axial field-of- view of at least 12 cm and 2 mm data sampling along all three image axes. The use of a single NaI(T1) crystal results not only in dramatically reduced system complexity and cost, but also in good spatial, timing, and energy resolution. In Phase I of the project, the feasibility of manufacturing the cylindrical crystal and of detecting coincidences in a single continuous crystal were demonstrated. In Phase II, we intend to construct and test a prototype of the single-crystal tomograph.