The Purchase of a Combined PET CT Scanner

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Washington University School of Medicine has a long history of invention, development and application of positron emission tomography (PET). Currently, there are a large number of active, NIH-funded, research projects that use imaging, and specifically PET, as a primary tool in making important physiological measurements. We propose that the acquisition of a new scanner that has an extremely high-performing PET scanner, combined with an advanced CT scanner, will greatly enhance the ongoing research program here at Washington University. We plan to purchase and install a Siemens' Biograph Sensation 16 with PICO-3D electronics. This scanner combines a state-of-the-art 16 slice CT scanner with an LSO-based PET camera that uses narrow coincidence window and high-speed electronics to yield high count rate capabilities. The Department of Radiology will site the scanner on the 10th floor of the Barnes-Jewish Hospital. This will achieve the following Specific Aims: 1. The new scanner will allow acquisition of both physiologic data from PET scanning and anatomic image data from CT scanning in a single session. This will greatly enhance the ability to extract physiologic data from specific regions of tumors and other organ systems (for oncology research) and from specific lung segments (for pulmonary research). 2. The new scanner will provide greatly enhanced ability to do high-count rate brain and cardiac PET scanning. 3. The location of the new scanner on the 10th floor of Barnes-Jewish Hospital will place it directly across the hall from the Neurological and Neurosurgical Intensive Care Unit (NNICU). This placement will allow the ill NNICU patients to be moved the small distance to the PET/CT imaging suite and then undergo PET and CT scanning while being monitored by the patient's own nursing and medical staff. 4. The CT component of the new scanner will be used to enhance NIH-funded research studies that currently depend completely on the existing clinical CT scanners (owned by Barnes-Jewish Hospital). The significance of this project will be that the acquisition and placement of a dedicated research PET/CT scanner with LSO crystals and high speed electronics will substantially enhance the ongoing NIH research portfolio through a variety of mechanisms.