Abstract
Positron emission tomography (PET) is an important molecular image modality and its application on preclinical research has increased during last decades. Thus, in laboratory practice, it is important to implement a quality control of the equipment, since intrinsic factors influence the image quality. The objective of this work was to perform and implement spatial resolution tests for the small animal PET scanner of the Molecular Imaging Laboratory, LIM/CDTN. Empirically, spatial resolution of a PET scanner can be determined from the measurement of point or linear sources and FWHM (full width half maximum) analysis of the respective linear profiles. In this work, a point source of 22Na and a hot rod style phantom filled with 18F-FDG solution were used. Acquisition and reconstruction of images were performed with the LabPET 1.12.1 software, provided by the equipment manufacturer. Image reconstruction parameters followed the LIM standard protocol: MLEM-3D algorithm, 20 iterations, no high resolution mode, no attenuation or scatter corrections, no post-filtering. PeakFit® and Amide softwares were used to perform images post-processing. The results indicate that the scanner has an adequate spatial resolution and its value is compatible with values reported in international studies performed on similar equipments.
Highlights
Positron emission tomography (PET) is one of the most important diagnostic and therapeutic methods in Nuclear Medicine (MN) due to its sensitivity in the detection of functional alterations at the molecular level
The Molecular Imaging Laboratory (LIM) of the Nuclear Technology Development Center (CDTN/CNEN) possesses a small animal PET scanner (LabPET SOLO 4, TriumphTM) which is used for preclinical studies concerning new radiopharmaceuticals development or new applications of traditional radiopharmaceuticals
The objective of this work was to characterize the spatial resolution of the LIM/CDTN small animal PET scanner
Summary
Positron emission tomography (PET) is one of the most important diagnostic and therapeutic methods in Nuclear Medicine (MN) due to its sensitivity in the detection of functional alterations at the molecular level. The Molecular Imaging Laboratory (LIM) of the Nuclear Technology Development Center (CDTN/CNEN) possesses a small animal PET scanner (LabPET SOLO 4, TriumphTM) which is used for preclinical studies concerning new radiopharmaceuticals development or new applications of traditional radiopharmaceuticals. Commercial small animal PET scanners have an image resolution between 1.3 and 2 mm [2]. The spatial resolution of a PET scanner is a measure of the equipment's ability to faithfully reproduce the image of an object, clearly showing variations in the distribution of radioactivity. It is empirically defined as the minimum distance between two points in a PET image that can be detected [1]
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