Quantitative analysis of L-SPECT system for small animal brain imaging

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the performance of a newly proposed L-SPECT system for small animal brain imaging. The L-SPECT system consists of an array of 100 × 100 micro range diameter pinholes. The proposed detector module has a 48 mm by 48 mm active area and the system is based on a pixelated array of NaI crystals (10×10×10 mm elements) coupled with an array of position sensitive photomultiplier tubes (PSPMTs). The performance of this system was evaluated with pinhole radii of 50 μm, 60 μm and 100 μm. Monte Carlo simulation studies using the Geant4 Application for Tomographic Emission (GATE) software package validate the performance of this novel dual head L-SPECT system where a geometric mouse phantom is used to investigate its performance. All SPECT data were obtained using 120 projection views from 0° to 360° with a 3° step. Slices were reconstructed using conventional filtered back projection (FBP) algorithm. We have evaluated the quality of the images in terms of spatial resolution (FWHM) based on line spread function, the system sensitivity, the point source response function and the image quality. The sensitivity of our newly proposed L- SPECT system was about 4500 cps/μCi at 6 cm along with excellent full width at half-maximum (FWHM) using 50 μm pinhole aperture at several radii of rotation. The analysis results show the combination of excellent spatial resolution and high detection efficiency over an energy range between 20-160 keV. The results demonstrate that SPECT imaging using a pixelated L-SPECT detector module is applicable in a quantitative study of mouse brain imaging.