I180] Recent developments in time-of-flight PET

Abstract

Time-of-flight PET is an old principle and has already been realized on prototype systems in the 80s, but these systems were not used for clinical imaging. The availability of fast scintillators and faster electronics has led to new developments in this field since 2000. During the last decade Time-of-flight (TOF) information has been introduced on most recent developed clinical PET systems. This requires both modifications in the detector hardware and image reconstruction which will be described. This additional information can be used to improve image quality, enhance the throughput or lower the dose. The gain depends on the object size and is especially apparent in heavy patients. TOF also has additional advantages besides these for new PET scanner designs. Current clinical systems have a TOF resolution in the range of 320–600 ps. New detector concepts and improved readout technology have the potential to push the timing resolution towards 100 ps in the next decade.