High Timing Resolution Detector Module for Time-of-Flight PET

用于飞行时间 PET 的高定时分辨率探测器模块

• 批准号: 7588886
• 负责人: WOON-SENG CHOONG
• 金额: $ 21.96万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF CALIF-LAWRENC BERKELEY LAB
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-04-01 至 2011-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7588886
• 关键词: Amplifiers; Anodes; Back; Body Size; Cancerous; Cerium; Characteristics; Clinical; Computer Simulation; Coupling; Detection; Development; Diagnostic; Dose; Evaluation; Future; Glues; Goals; Image; Individual; LSO crystal; Lead; Length; Lesion; Light; Lutetium; Measurement; Measures; Modeling; Motivation; Noise; One-Step dentin bonding system; Output; Performance; Phase; Photons; Polishes; Positron; Positron-Emission Tomography; Property; Reading; Resolution; Signal Transduction; Surface Properties; Technology; Time; Tube; Variant; base; body system; design; design and construction; detector; image reconstruction; improved; next generation; photomultiplier; research study; simulation; tool

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Whole-body positron emission tomography (PET) imaging has become an important diagnostic tool for accurately determining the status of primary and metastatic cancerous lesions of many organ systems. However, current clinical PET scanners have approached the limit of sensitivity. There is an increasing need to improve the signal-to-noise ratio in PET, which will lead to better lesion detection, shorter imaging time, and/or lower injected dose. The improvement can be obtained by improving the coincidence timing resolution in the detection of the two back-to-back 511 keV photons from the positron annihilation in PET so that time-of-flight information can be incorporated into the image reconstruction. Time-of-flight PET (TOF PET) holds the only known potential for a significant reduction in the noise levels. The goal of this project is to develop a practical detector module with superior timing resolution than currently available, without compromising its efficiency for detecting 511 keV photons for application in TOF PET. Critical improvements in the development of the detector module include an appropriate scintillator material (LSO) for TOF PET, a multi-anode microchannel plate photomultiplier tube (MCP PMT) technology as the photodetector, and one-to-one coupling of an array of scintillator crystals to the multi-anode MCP PMT. Although the new cerium-doped halide scintillator material (LaBr3) with higher light output and slightly faster decay time than LSO might be a better choice of scintillator material to produce better timing resolution in the detector module, it has much lower stopping power and photoelectric fraction than LSO, which degrades the efficiency of the detector module. Furthermore, the detector technology we propose to develop can be applied to other scintillator materials with outstanding potential for TOF PET that are being currently investigated or will be discovered in the future. The feasibility of the proposed detector module will be thoroughly characterized through the phases of design, construction, optimization, and performance evaluation. The contribution of the detector module will also be modeled through computer simulation and validated by the experimental measurement. The resulting detector module is expected to provide the excellent timing properties needed for improving the imaging performance of next generation PET scanners by enabling TOF.

描述(申请人提供)：全身正电子发射断层扫描(PET)成像已成为准确确定许多器官系统的原发癌和转移性癌病变状态的重要诊断工具。然而，目前的临床PET扫描仪已接近灵敏度极限。人们越来越需要提高PET的信噪比，这将导致更好的病变检测，更短的成像时间，和/或更低的注射剂量。可以通过提高正电子湮没产生的两个背靠背511keV光子的符合时间分辨率，从而将飞行时间信息融入到图像重建中来实现这一改进。飞行时间PET(TOF PET)拥有唯一已知的显著降低噪声水平的潜力。该项目的目标是开发一种实用的探测器模块，在不影响其用于TOF PET中检测511keV光子的效率的情况下，具有比目前可用的更高的时间分辨率。探测器模块开发中的关键改进包括用于TOF PET的合适的闪烁体材料(LSO)、作为光电探测器的多阳极微通道板式光电倍增管(MCP PMT)技术、以及闪烁体晶体阵列与多阳极MCP PMT的一对一耦合。虽然新型掺Ce卤化物闪烁体材料(LaBr3)比LSO具有更高的光输出和略快的衰减时间，但它可能是在探测器模块中产生更高时间分辨率的较好的闪烁体材料，但它的阻止功率和光电比例比LSO低得多，这降低了探测器模块的效率。此外，我们建议开发的探测器技术可以应用于目前正在研究或将在未来发现的其他具有TOF PET突出潜力的闪烁体材料。建议的探测器模块的可行性将通过设计、建造、优化和性能评估阶段进行彻底表征。探测器模块的贡献也将通过计算机仿真来建模，并通过实验测量来验证。由此产生的探测器模块预计将提供通过启用TOF来提高下一代PET扫描仪的成像性能所需的优良定时特性。