Novel small animal PET scanner using 2.0 mm lead-walled straw detectors

使用 2.0 毫米铅壁吸管探测器的新型小动物 PET 扫描仪

• 批准号: 7326740
• 负责人: JEFFREY L LACY
• 金额: $ 20万
• 依托单位: PROPORTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-07-05 至 2009-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7326740
• 关键词: 3-Dimensional; Aging; Animal Model; Animals; Arts; Back; Benchmarking; Biological Process; Blur; Brain imaging; Breast; Caliber; Clinical assessments; Count; Depth; Development; Devices; Dimensions; Disease; Electronics; Elements; Employee Strikes; Event; Facility Construction Funding Category; Funding; Futility; Gamma Rays; Gases; Grant; Grouping; Heart; Human; Image; Imaging Device; Imaging Phantoms; Imaging Techniques; Immunity; Invasive; Investigation; Lead; Length; Life; Location; Marketing; Measures; Methods; Mission; Modeling; Molecular; Monitor; Mus; Numbers; Operative Surgical Procedures; Organ; Performance; Phase; Placement; Positioning Attribute; Positron; Positron-Emission Tomography; Property; Radioisotopes; Rate; Rattus; Relative (related person); Research; Resolution; Rotation; Simulate; Small Business Funding Mechanisms; Small Business Innovation Research Grant; Solid; Source; Staging; Structure; System; Techniques; Technology; Test Result; Testing; Time; Tracer; United States National Institutes of Health; Variant; attenuation; base; cost; density; design; detector; human disease; improved; in vivo; instrument; instrumentation; molecular imaging; mouse model; novel; novel strategies; optical imaging; prevent; quality assurance; quantum; reconstruction; response; simulation; size; tool; tumor; uptake

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Molecular imaging techniques are among the most powerful tools for non-invasive investigation of disease and fundamental biological processes in vivo and are therefore of high significance to the mission of the NIH. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) provides sensitivity to molecular tracer concentrations several orders of magnitude less than any other imaging technique offering a large fundamental sensitivity advantage. Also PET is able to produce rigorous quantitative 3D uptake distribution uniquely free of attenuation and scatter effects giving it another strong advantage over other methods such as optical imaging. Since mouse is by far the most popular species in molecular imaging, high resolution is of exceptional importance. A number of commercial scintillator based dedicated small animal PET scanners are on the market but are limited to a useful volumetric imaging resolution of no better than 5 ¿l and are very costly ($500,000 - $850,000). Recent attempts to reduce crystal size to levels needed to improve resolution performance have shown that depth of interaction (DOI) error reduces improvement to marginal levels despite substantial cost increase demonstrating the futility of the approach. Development of a low cost, high resolution PET scanner is proposed based on revolutionary detector elements composed of lead walled straws (LWS). Compared to scintillation crystal detectors, this technology is intrinsically many fold less expensive to produce and because the position of each detected gamma ray is located precisely in 3D space, fundamentally superior camera configurations can be employed to great advantage. Detectors can be placed very close to the imaged subject and events accepted over a substantially larger solid angle providing unparalleled sensitivity while maintaining immunity from resolution degradation caused by DOI. Unlike crystal devices with DOI problems, resolution performance of LWS devices scales precisely with detector dimension. Based on scaling of performance achieved in a 4 mm straw pilot device backed up by a comprehensive Monte Carlo study an optimally designed 2 mm LWS camera can reach at least a volumetric resolution of 1.2 ¿l and with recently demonstrated resolution refinements should achieve a further reduction to 0.58 ¿l. Furthermore using a very small detector module count of 28, a 4 fold increase in sensitivity and throughput can be achieved. In stark contrast to crystal devices the LWS camera design produces highly uniform sensitivity and resolution over its entire very large field of view. Feasibility will be demonstrated by construction of two densely packed 200 straw LWS modules of 30 - 50 cm length. Imaging performance using a rotating gantry will be evaluated through phantom testing. Lower cost combined with quantum improvement in quality will afford an exceptional new molecular imaging tool.

描述（由申请人提供）：分子成像技术是对体内疾病和基本生物过程进行非侵入性研究的最强大工具之一，因此对 NIH 的使命具有重要意义。正电子发射断层扫描 (PET) 对分子示踪剂浓度的灵敏度比任何其他具有巨大基本灵敏度优势的成像技术低几个数量级。此外，PET 还能够产生严格的定量 3D 吸收分布，并且没有衰减和散射效应，这使其具有优于光学成像等其他方法的另一个强大优势。由于小鼠是迄今为止分子成像中最受欢迎的物种，因此高分辨率显得尤为重要。市场上有许多基于商业闪烁体的专用小动物 PET 扫描仪，但其有用的体积成像分辨率不超过 5 µl，而且非常昂贵（500,000 美元 - 850,000 美元）。最近尝试将晶体尺寸减小到提高分辨率性能所需的水平，结果表明相互作用深度 (DOI) 误差将改进降低到边际水平，尽管成本大幅增加表明该方法是徒劳的。建议开发一种基于由铅壁吸管 (LWS) 组成的革命性探测器元件的低成本、高分辨率 PET 扫描仪。与闪烁晶体探测器相比，该技术的生产成本本质上要低很多倍，而且由于每个检测到的伽马射线的位置都精确地位于 3D 空间中，因此可以利用根本上优越的相机配置来发挥巨大优势。探测器可以放置在非常靠近成像对象的位置，并且可以在更大的立体角上接收事件，从而提供无与伦比的灵敏度，同时保持免受 DOI 引起的分辨率下降的影响。与存在 DOI 问题的晶体器件不同，LWS 器件的分辨率性能与探测器尺寸精确缩放。基于综合蒙特卡罗研究支持的 4 毫米吸管试点装置中实现的性能扩展，优化设计的 2 毫米 LWS 相机可以达到至少 1.2 µl 的体积分辨率，并且通过最近展示的分辨率改进，应该可以进一步降低至 0.58 µl。此外，使用 28 个非常小的检测器模块，可以将灵敏度和通量提高 4 倍。与晶体器件形成鲜明对比的是，LWS 相机设计在整个非常大的视场内产生高度均匀的灵敏度和分辨率。将通过建造两个密集排列的 200 根秸秆 LWS 模块（长度为 30 - 50 厘米）来证明其可行性。使用旋转机架的成像性能将通过体模测试进行评估。更低的成本加上质量的大幅提高将提供一种特殊的新型分子成像工具。