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EJNMMI Physics
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Volume 2 Supplement 1

Proceedings of the 4th PSMR Conference on PET/MR and SPECT/MR

A novel method for γ photons depth of interaction discrimination on monolithic LYSO crystals for brain PET/MRI

EJNMMI Physics volume 2, Article number: A11 (2015) Cite this article

The MindView European Project pursues the development of a high efficiency and high resolution brain dedicated PET detector, simultaneously working with a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) system. Since the PET scanner is based on a small diameter ring and on thick monolithic scintillation crystals to assess high efficiency, the parallax error related to off-center positron annihilation is a critical issue. The Depth of Interaction (DoI) discrimination can reduce the blurring due to this phenomenon. In this work, we propose a novel DoI estimator, based on the ratio of the integral of scintillation light distribution to its maximum (named N/I). In a preliminary way, by means of Monte Carlo simulation, we have validated the correlation between this parameter and the DoI. Furthermore, we have experimentally tested the capability of such DoI estimator on a monolithic 20 mm-thick LYSO crystal optically coupled to a 12x12 silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) array. Thanks to the proposed method, it is possible to select interaction events coming from different depths of the crystal. The DoI discrimination capability has been confirmed by using a collimated slanted pencil-beam: the proposed estimator allows to produce different images coming from events belonging to different depths of the crystal. From the experimental results a DoI discrimination resolution ranging from 4 mm to 6 mm has been obtained. The proposed method is expected to reduce the parallax error and, consequently, the width of lines of response coming from off- center positron annihilation of about 70% respect to the method without DoI discrimination.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

    Roberto Pani, Marco Bettiol, Rosanna Pellegrini & Maria Nerina Cinti

  2. Morphofunctional Sciences - Biophysics, Doctorate School of Biology and Molecular Medicine – Saimlal Department, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy

    Enrico Preziosi

  3. Post Graduate School of Medical Physics, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Christian Borrazzo & Andrea Fabbri

  4. Institute for Instrumentation in Molecular Imaging, I3M-CSIC, Valencia, Spain

    Antonio Gonzalez & Pablo Conde

  5. Department of Radiological Sciences, Oncology and Pathological, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Elisabetta Di Castro

  6. West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, USA

    Stan Majewski

Authors
  1. Roberto Pani
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  2. Marco Bettiol
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  3. Enrico Preziosi
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  4. Christian Borrazzo
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  5. Rosanna Pellegrini
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  6. Antonio Gonzalez
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  7. Pablo Conde
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  8. Maria Nerina Cinti
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  9. Andrea Fabbri
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  10. Elisabetta Di Castro
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  11. Stan Majewski
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marco Bettiol.

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Pani, R., Bettiol, M., Preziosi, E. et al. A novel method for γ photons depth of interaction discrimination on monolithic LYSO crystals for brain PET/MRI. EJNMMI Phys 2 (Suppl 1), A11 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/2197-7364-2-S1-A11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/2197-7364-2-S1-A11

Keywords

  • Computational Mathematic
  • Technical Physic
  • Monte Carlo Simulation
  • Positron Annihilation
  • European Project