Abstract
This article presents system performance studies of the CareMiBrain dedicated brain PET according to NEMA NU 2-2012 (for whole-body PETs) and NU 4-2008 (for preclinical PETs). This scanner is based on monolithic LYSO crystals coupled to silicon photomultipliers. The results obtained for both protocols are compared with current commercial whole body PETs and dedicated brain PETs found in the literature. Spatial resolution, sensitivity, NECR and scatter-fraction are characterized with NEMA standards, as well as an image quality study. A customized image quality phantom is proposed as NEMA phantoms do not fulfil the necessities of dedicated brain PETs. The full-width half maximum of the radial/tangential/axial spatial resolution of CareMiBrain reconstructed with FBP at 10 and 100 mm from the system center were, respectively, 1.87/1.68/1.39 mm and 1.86/1.91/1.40 mm (NU 2-2012) and 1.58/1.45/1.40 mm and 1.64/1.66/1.44 mm (NU 4-2008). Peak NECR was 49 kcps@287 MBq with a scatter fraction of 48% using NU 2-2012 phantom. The sensitivity was 13.82 cps/kBq at the center of the FOV (NU 2-2012) and 10% (NU 4-2008). Contrast recovery coefficients for customizing image quality phantom were 0.73/0.78/1.14/1.01 for the 4.5/6/9/12 mm diameter rods. The performance characteristics of CareMiBrain are at the top of the current technologies for PET systems. Dedicated brain PET systems significantly improve spatial resolution and sensitivity, but present worse results in count rate measurements and scatter-fraction tests. As for the comparison of preclinical and clinical standards, the results obtained for solid and liquid sources were similar.
Highlights
In this work, we present the performance evaluation of the dedicated brain PET CareMiBrain based on NU 2-2012 and NU 4-20083
This device consists of three detector rings with 16 detector modules each forming a transaxial gantry of 256 mm and an axial length of 154 mm
The Scatter Fraction (SF) had a mean value of 48% for CareMiBrain system in a range of activities of 7.4–14.8 MBq
Summary
We present the performance evaluation of the dedicated brain PET CareMiBrain based on NU 2-2012 and NU 4-20083 (dedicated to preclinical equipment). The reason for including the small animal standard is the reduced dimensions of the CareMiBrain scanner (260 mm of gantry). We compare the performance evaluation for the most used WB-PETs and dedicated brain PETs found in the literature that fulfills the NEMA procedures. Some of these studies used the standard NU-2007 and it is included in this study. - Different phantom in 2008 - Different phantom positioning, acquisition time and different tolerances for the activity filling between 2007–2012
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