New detectors for positron emission tomography

正电子发射断层扫描(PET)是一种用于功能医学成像的强大诊断技术。我们的总体目标是显著改进PET成像，以接近其最终能力，例如，将为神经科学家和肿瘤学家提供诊断和检测疾病以及调查疾病机制的优越系统。为了实现这一目标，我们将开发一种基于液体氙气(LXE)伽马射线探测器的PET系统，该系统在灵敏度和图像质量方面明显优于现有的PET系统。在LXE PET系统中，可以实现更高的空间分辨率(消除视差误差的三维小于毫米)和更高的能量分辨率，同时抑制了散射伽马和随机重合的污染。为了将研究成果转化为实践，我们将与最先进的商业PET系统进行比较，并进行PET测量。我们将与行业合作伙伴一起开发和规划未来的LXE PET系统，用于小动物研究和人类研究，这些系统可以经济地商业化。

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is a powerful diagnostic technique employed in functional medical imaging. Our overall objective is to significantly improve PET imaging to approach its ultimate capability which would provide neuroscientists and oncologists, for example, with superior systems for diagnosing and detecting disease and investigating disease mechanisms. To achieve this goal we will develop a PET system based on liquid xenon (LXe) gamma ray detectors that is significantly superior to existing PET systems in sensitivity and image quality. Higher spatial resolution (sub-mm in three dimensions eliminating parallax errors) and superior energy resolution with suppressed contamination of scattered gammas and random coincidences are achievable in a LXe PET system. To translate the research results into practice, we will evaluate the system in comparison with state-of-the-art commercial PET systems and perform PET measurements. In concert with industrial partners we will develop and plan future LXe PET systems for small animal research and human studies which can be economically commercialized.