A Monte Carlo simulation study of the feasibility of a high resolution parallel-hole collimator with a CdTe pixelated semiconductor SPECT system

Abstract

It is recommended that a pixelated parallel-hole collimator in which the hole and pixel sizes are equal be used to improve the sensitivity and spatial resolution when using a small pixel size and a single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) system with pixelated semiconductor detector materials (e.g., CdTe and CZT). However, some significant problems arise in the manufacturing of a pixelated parallel-hole collimator. Therefore, we sought to simulate a pixelated semiconductor SPECT system with various collimator geometric designs. The purpose of this study was to compare the quality of images generated with a pixelated semiconductor SPECT system simulated with pixelated parallel-hole collimators of various geometric designs. The sensitivity and spatial resolution of the various collimator geometric designs with varying septal heights and hole sizes were measured. Moreover, to evaluate the overall performance of the imaging system, a hot-rod phantom was designed using a Monte Carlo simulation. According to the results, the average sensitivity using a 15 mm septal height was 1.80, 2.87, and 4.16 times higher than that obtained with septal heights of 20, 25, and 30 mm, respectively. Also, the average spatial resolution using the 30 mm septal height was 44.33, 22.08, and 9.26% better than that attained with 15, 20, and 25 mm septal heights, respectively. When the results acquired with 0.3 and 0.6 mm hole sizes were compared, the average sensitivity with the 0.6 mm hole size was 3.97 times higher than that obtained with the 0.3 mm hole size, and the average spatial resolution with the 0.3 mm hole size was 45.76% better than that with the 0.6 mm hole size. We have presented the pixelated parallel-hole collimators of various collimator geometric designs and evaluations. Our results showed that the effect of various collimator geometric designs can be investigated by Monte Carlo simulation so as to evaluate the feasibility of a high resolution parallel-hole collimator with a CdTe pixelated semiconductor SPECT system.