• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.65-71
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• 2024

To achieve high resolution and sensitivity of positron emission tomography (PET) for small animals, the detector is constructed using very thin and long scintillation pixels. Due to the structure of these scintillation pixels, spatial resolution deterioration occurs outside the system's field of view. To solve this problem, we designed a detector that could improve spatial resolution by measuring the interaction depth and improve sensitivity by using a quasi-block scintillator. A quasi-block scintillator size of 12.6 mm x 12.6 mm x 3 mm was arranged in four layers, and optical sensors were placed on all sides to collect light generated by the interaction between gamma rays and the scintillator. DETECT2000 simulation was performed to evaluate the performance of the designed detector. Flood images were acquired by generating gamma-ray events at 1 mm intervals from 1.3 mm to 11.3 mm within the scintillator of each layer. The spatial resolution and peak-to-peak distance for each location were measured in an 11 x 11 array of flood images. The average measured spatial resolution was 0.25 mm, and the average distance between peaks was 1.0 mm. Through this, it was confirmed that all locations were separated from each other. In addition, because the light signals of all layers were measured separately from each other, the layer of the scintillator that interacted with the gamma rays could be completely separated. When the designed detector is used as a detector in a PET system for small animals, it is considered that excellent spatial resolution and sensitivity can be achieved and image quality can be improved.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.145-152
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• 2010

Inveon PET is a recently developed preclinical PET system for small animal. This study was conducted to measure the performance of Inveon PET as recommended by the NEMA NU 4-2008. We measured the spatial resolution, the sensitivity, the scatter fraction and the NECR using a F-18 source. A 3.432 ns coincidence window was used. A $1\;mm^3$ sized F-18 point source was used for the measurement of spatial resolution within an energy window of 350~625 keV. PET acquisition was performed to obtain the spatial resolution from the center to the 5 cm offset toward the edge of the transverse FOV. Sensitivity, scatter fraction, and NECR were measured within an energy window of 350~750 keV. For measuring the sensitivity, a F-18 line source (length: 12.7 cm) was used with concentric 5 aluminum tubes. For the acquisition of the scatter fraction and the NECR, two NEMA scatter phantoms (rat: 50 mm in diameter, 150 mm in length; mouse: 25 mm in diameter, 70 mm in length) were used and the data for 14 half-lives (25.6 hr) was obtained using the F-18 line source (rat: 316 MBq, mouse: 206 MBq). The spatial resolution of the F-18 point source was 1.53, 1.50 and 2.33 mm in the radial, tangential and axial directions, respectively. The volumetric resolution was $5.43\;mm^3$ in the center. The absolute sensitivity was 6.61%. The peak NECR was 486 kcps @121 MBq (rat phantom), and 1056 kcps @128 MBq (mouse phantom). The values of the scatter fraction were 20.59% and 7.93% in the rat and mouse phantoms, respectively. The performances of the Inveon animal PET scanner were measured in this study. This scanner will be useful for animal imaging.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.172-177
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to analyze $^{68}Ga$-BAPEN dynamic PET image in rat myocardium to evaluate potential of this radiotracer as a perfusion imaging agent. Animal PET/CT scan was done in 9 rats during 120 minutes. Especially we synthesized $^{68}Ga$-BAPEN with kit which is simple and low cost method. PET images showed the in vivo dynamic distribution of $^{68}Ga$-BAPEN in the chest region of rats. Initially $^{68}Ga$-BAPEN PET images showed aorta and liver activities and a few minutes later, $^{68}Ga$-BAPEN moved to myocardium. Regions of interest were drawn on myocardium, liver, lung and blood pool. Time-activity curves showed significant uptake of $^{68}Ga$-BAPEN in myocardium. The contrast ratios of myocardial to blood pool, lung and liver at 60 minutes after injection were 1.66, 2.82 and 0.60. To estimate accurate kinetic parameters, 60 minutes after injection was required to PET scan as myocardium image contrast ratios reached to constant values. As a result, $^{68}Ga$-BAPEN would be suitable radiotracer for PET which can applied to diagnosis of myocardial perfusion diseases after further preclinical and clinical investigations.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.469-477
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• 2008

Purpose: The goal of this paper is to present the design and performance of a position encoding circuit for $16{\times}16$ array of position sensitive multi-anode photomultiplier tube for small animal PET scanners. This circuit which reduces the number of readout channels from 256 to 4 channels is based on a charge division method utilizing a resistor array. Materials and Methods: The position encoding circuit was simulated with PSpice before fabrication. The position encoding circuit reads out the signals from H9500 flat panel PMTs (Hamamatsu Photonics K.K., Japan) on which $1.5{\times}1.5{\times}7.0\;mm^3$ $L_{0.9}GSO$ ($Lu_{1.8}Gd_{0.2}SiO_{5}:Ce$) crystals were mounted. For coincidence detection, two different PET modules were used. One PET module consisted of a $29{\times}29\;L_{0.9}GSO$ crystal layer, and the other PET module two $28{\times}28$ and $29{\times}29\;L_{0.9}GSO$ crystal layers which have relative offsets by half a crystal pitch in x- and y-directions. The crystal mapping algorithm was also developed to identify crystals. Results: Each crystal was clearly visible in flood images. The crystal identification capability was enhanced further by changing the values of resistors near the edge of the resistor array. Energy resolutions of individual crystal were about 11.6%(SD 1.6). The flood images were segmented well with the proposed crystal mapping algorithm. Conclusion: The position encoding circuit resulted in a clear separation of crystals and sufficient energy resolutions with H9500 flat-panel PMT and $L_{0.9}GSO$ crystals. This circuit is good enough for use in small animal PET scanners.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.499-504
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• 2022

Positron emission tomography (PET) uses a very small scintillator to achieve exellent spatial resolution. Therefore, in this study, a PET system using a scintillator to 0.8 mm size was designed and the performance was evaluated. Anihilation radiation was generated from the center of the field of view (FOV) to the outskirts at intervals of 10 mm, and counted simultaneously. The image was reconstructed using the coincidence data, and the spatial resolution was calculated by acquiring the full width at half maximum through the profile. The spatial resolution at the center of the FOV was 1.02 mm, showing a very good result, and the spatial resolution decreased as it was located at the outer edge. To evaluate the phantom image, the Derenzo phantom was constructed to acquire the image, and the degree of classification between radiation sources was evaluated through profile analysis. The result showed that the distance between the radiation sources was larger than the spatial resolution of the radiation sources at each location, and it was confirmed that the radiation sources were distinguished through this. When the PET system designed in this study is applied to PET for small animals, it is considered that excellent performance can be secured through the characteristic of very good spatial resolution.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.226-233
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• 2007

Purpose: Dual reporter gene imaging has several advantages for more sophisticated molecular imaging studies such as gene therapy monitoring. Herein, we have constructed hepatoma cell line expressing dual reporter genes of sodium iodide symporter (NIS) and enhanced green fluorescence protein (EGFP), and the functionalities of the genes were evaluated in vivo by nuclear and optical imaging. Materials and Methods: A pRetro-PN vector was constructed after separating NIS gene from pcDNA-NIS. RSV-EGFP-WPRE fragment separated from pLNRGW was cloned into pRetro-PN vector. The final vector expressing dual reporter genes was named pRetro-PNRGW. A human hepatoma (HepG2) cells were transfected by the retrovirus containing NIS and EGFP gene (HepG2-NE). Expression of NIS gene was confirmed by RT-PCR, radioiodine uptake and efflux studies. Expression of EGFP was confirmed by RT-PCR and fluorescence microscope. The HepG2 and HepG2-NE cells were implanted in shoulder and hindlimb of nude mice, then fluorescence image, gamma camera image and I-124 microPET image were undertaken. Results: The HepG2-NE cell was successfully constructed. RT-PCR showed NIS and EGFP mRNA expression. About 50% of cells showed fluorescence. The iodine uptake of NIS-expressed cells was about 9 times higher than control. In efflux study, $T_{1/2}$ of HepG2-NE cells was 9 min. HepG2-NE xenograft showed high signal-to-background fluorescent spots and higher iodine-uptake compared to those of HepG2 xenograft. Conclusion: A hepatoma cell line expressing NIS and EGFP dual reporter genes was successfully constructed and could be used as a potential either by therapeutic gene or imaging reporter gene.

• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.234-240
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• 2007

Purpose: In this study we propose a block-iterative method for reconstructing Compton scattered data. This study shows that the well-known expectation maximization (EM) approach along with its accelerated version based on the ordered subsets principle can be applied to the problem of image reconstruction for Compton camera. This study also compares several methods of constructing subsets for optimal performance of our algorithms. Materials and Methods: Three reconstruction algorithms were implemented; simple backprojection (SBP), EM, and ordered subset EM (OSEM). For OSEM, the projection data were grouped into subsets in a predefined order. Three different schemes for choosing nonoverlapping subsets were considered; scatter angle-based subsets, detector position-based subsets, and both scatter angle- and detector position-based subsets. EM and OSEM with 16 subsets were performed with 64 and 4 iterations, respectively. The performance of each algorithm was evaluated in terms of computation time and normalized mean-squared error. Results: Both EM and OSEM clearly outperformed SBP in all aspects of accuracy. The OSEM with 16 subsets and 4 iterations, which is equivalent to the standard EM with 64 iterations, was approximately 14 times faster in computation time than the standard EM. In OSEM, all of the three schemes for choosing subsets yielded similar results in computation time as well as normalized mean-squared error. Conclusion: Our results show that the OSEM algorithm, which have proven useful in emission tomography, can also be applied to the problem of image reconstruction for Compton camera. With properly chosen subset construction methods and moderate numbers of subsets, our OSEM algorithm significantly improves the computational efficiency while keeping the original quality of the standard EM reconstruction. The OSEM algorithm with scatter angle- and detector position-based subsets is most available.