Time-of-flight Positron Emission Tomography Systems Research Articles

Dual threshold input receiver FPGA-only signal digitization method for time-of-flight positron emission tomography

As silicon photomultiplier (SiPM)-based time-of-flight (TOF) positron emission tomography (PET) becomes popular, the need for sophisticated PET data acquisition (DAQ) systems is increasing. One promising solution to this challenge is the adoption of a field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-only signal digitization method. In this paper, we propose a new approach to efficiently implement an FPGA-only digitizer. We configured the input/output (IO) port of the FPGA to function as a dual-threshold voltage comparator through the use of simple passive circuitry and heterogeneous IO standards. This configuration overcomes the limitations of existing methods by allowing different threshold voltages for adjacent IO pins, effectively reducing routing complexity and lowering manufacturing costs. An FPGA-only digitizer was implemented by integrating the dual-threshold voltage comparator and FPGA-based time-to-digital converter. By combining the dual-threshold time-over-threshold (TOT) method and curve fitting, precise energy information could be obtained. The performance of the FPGA-only digitizer was assessed using a detector setup comprising a 3 × 3 × 20 mm3 LYSO scintillation crystal and a single pixel SiPM. Using the configured evaluation setup, an energy resolution of 12.5% and a time resolution of 146 ± 9 ps were achieved for a 20 mm scintillation crystal. The dual-threshold TOT implemented using the proposed method showed consistent linearity across an energy range of 100 keV to 600 keV. The proposed method is well-suited for the development of cost-effective DAQ systems in highly integrated TOF PET systems.

The properties of the positronium lifetime image reconstruction based on maximum likelihood estimation

The positronium lifetime imaging (PLI) reconstruction is a technique used in time-of-flight (TOF) positron emission tomography (PET) imaging that involves measuring the lifespan of positronium, which is a metastable electron-positron pair that arises when a PET molecule releases a positron, prior to its annihilation. We have previously developed a maximum likelihood (ML) algorithm for PLI reconstruction and demonstrated that it can generate quantitatively accurate lifetime images for a 570 ps (pico-seconds) TOF PET system. In this study, we conducted further investigations into the statistical properties of the algorithm, including the variability of the reconstruction results, the sensitivity of the algorithm to the number of acquired PLI events and its robustness to hyperparameter choices. Our findings indicate that the proposed ML method produces sufficiently stable lifetime images to enable reliable distinction of regions of interest. Moreover, the number of PLI events required to produce quantitatively accurate lifetime images is computationally plausible. These results demonstrate the potential of our ML algorithm for advancing the capabilities of TOF PET imaging.

Colored reflectors to improve coincidence timing resolution of BGO-based time-of-flight PET detectors

Time-of-flight (TOF) positron emission tomography (PET) detectors improve the signal-to-noise ratio of PET images by limiting the position of the generation of two 511 keV gamma-rays in space using the arrival time difference between the two photons. Unfortunately, bismuth germanate (BGO), widely used in conventional PET detectors, was limited as a TOF PET scintillator due to the relatively slow decay time of the scintillation photons. However, prompt Cerenkov light in BGO has been identified in addition to scintillation photons. Using Cerenkov photons for timing has significantly improved the coincidence timing resolution (CTR) of BGO. Based on this, further research on improving the CTR for a BGO-based TOF PET system is being actively conducted. Wrapping materials for BGO pixels have primarily employed white reflectors to most efficiently collect scintillation light. White reflectors have customarily been used as reflectors for BGO pixels even after Cerenkov light began to be utilized for timing calculations in pixel-level experiments. However, when the arrival-time differences of the two 511 keV annihilations photons were measured with pure Cerenkov radiators, painting the lateral sides of the radiators black can improve CTR by suppressing the reflection of Cerenkov photons. The use of BGO for TOF PET detectors requires simultaneously minimizing scintillation loss for good energy information and suppressing reflected Cerenkov photons for better timing performance. Thus, reflectors for BGO pixels should be optimized for better timing and energy performance. In this study, colored polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) tapes with discontinuous reflectance values at specific wavelengths were applied as a BGO reflector. We hypothesized that CTR could be enhanced by selectively suppressing reflected Cerenkov photons with an optimum colored reflector on the BGO pixel while minimizing scintillation photon loss. CTRs were investigated utilizing white and three colors (yellow, red, and green) PTFE tapes as a reflector. In addition, black-painted PTFE tape and enhanced specular reflector film were investigated as reference reflector materials. When 3 × 3 × 20 mm3 BGO pixels were wrapped with the yellow PTFE reflector, the CTR was significantly improved to 365 ± 5 ps from 403 ± 14 ps measured with the conventional white PTFE reflector. Adequate energy information was still obtained with only 4.1% degradation in light collection compared to the white reflector. Colored reflectors show the possibility to further improve CTR for BGO pixels with optimum reflectance design.

The value of using heterogeneous detector groups for the development of time-of-flight (TOF) positron emission tomography (PET) systems.

Objective. Much recent attention on positron emission tomography (PET) is the development of time-of-flight (TOF) systems with ever-improving coincidence time resolution (CTR). This is because, when all other factors remain the same, a better CTR leads to images of better statistics and effectively increases the sensitivity of the system. However, detector designs that aggressively improve the CTR often compromise the detection efficiency (DE) and offset the benefit gained. Under this circumstance, in developing a TOF PET system it may be beneficial to employ heterogeneous detector groups to balance the overall CTR and DE of the system. In this study, we examine the potential value of this system design strategy by considering two-dimensional systems that assume several representative ways of mixing two detector groups.Approach. The study is based on computer simulation and specifically considers medium time-resolution (MTR) detectors that have a 528 ps CTR and high time-resolution (HTR) detectors that have a 100 ps CTR and a DE that is 0.7 times that of the MTR detector. We examine contrast recovery, noise, and subjective quality of the resulting images under various ways of mixing the MTR and HTR detectors.Main results. With respect to the traditional configuration that adopts only the HTR detectors, symmetric heterogeneous configurations may offer comparable or better images while using considerably fewer HTRs. On the other hand, asymmetric heterogeneous configurations may allow the use of only a few HTRs for improving image quality locally.Significance. This study demonstrates the value of the proposed system-level design strategy of using heterogeneous detector groups for achieving high effective system sensitivity by factoring into the tradeoff between the CTR and DE of the detector.

Design considerations for PET detectors with 100 picoseconds coincidence time resolution

The goal of the present work is to develop a time-of-flight positron emission tomography (TOF-PET) detector system with 100 picosecond (ps) coincidence time resolution (CTR) using arrays of 20 mm length scintillator crystal elements. If successful, this would yield a 1.5-fold better reconstructed image signal to noise ratio (SNR) compared to state-of-the-art clinical TOF-PET systems. The proposed detector configuration comprises LGSO scintillation crystal elements optically coupled to silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) which are read out by a fast, high precision, multi-channel amplifier/comparator integrated circuit (IC). Results obtained with that IC were compared with those achieved using a high-frequency (HF) readout, comprising discrete element readout for each detector channel. CTR values of 89.6 ± 0.8 ps and 105.1 ± 0.9 ps FWHM were achieved with the HF readout for 3 × 3 × 3 mm3 and 3 × 3 × 10 mm3 LGSO crystals, respectively, and 92.8 ± 0.9 ps and 114.1 ± 1.1 ps FWHM were achieved using the IC board for the same crystal elements. These results demonstrate the capabilities of a scalable IC readout solution for a 100 ps CTR TOF-PET design.

Fast and memory-efficient reconstruction of sparse Poisson data in listmode with non-smooth priors with application to time-of-flight PET

Objective. Complete time of flight (TOF) sinograms of state-of-the-art TOF PET scanners have a large memory footprint. Currently, they contain ∼4 · 109 data bins which amount to ∼17 GB in 32 bit floating point precision. Moreover, their size will continue to increase with advances in the achievable detector TOF resolution and increases in the axial field of view. Using iterative algorithms to reconstruct such enormous TOF sinograms becomes increasingly challenging due to the memory requirements and the computation time needed to evaluate the forward model for every data bin. This is especially true for more advanced optimization algorithms such as the stochastic primal-dual hybrid gradient (SPDHG) algorithm which allows for the use of non-smooth priors for regularization using subsets with guaranteed convergence. SPDHG requires the storage of additional sinograms in memory, which severely limits its application to data sets from state-of-the-art TOF PET systems using conventional computing hardware. Approach. Motivated by the generally sparse nature of the TOF sinograms, we propose and analyze a new listmode (LM) extension of the SPDHG algorithm for image reconstruction of sparse data following a Poisson distribution. The new algorithm is evaluated based on realistic 2D and 3D simulationsn, and a real data set acquired on a state-of-the-art TOF PET/CT system. The performance of the newly proposed LM SPDHG algorithm is compared against the conventional sinogram SPDHG and the listmode EM-TV algorithm. Main results. We show that the speed of convergence of the proposed LM-SPDHG is equivalent the original SPDHG operating on binned data (TOF sinograms). However, we find that for a TOF PET system with 400 ps TOF resolution and 25 cm axial FOV, the proposed LM-SPDHG reduces the required memory from approximately 56 to 0.7 GB for a short dynamic frame with 107 prompt coincidences and to 12.4 GB for a long static acquisition with 5·108 prompt coincidences. Significance. In contrast to SPDHG, the reduced memory requirements of LM-SPDHG enables a pure GPU implementation on state-of-the-art GPUs—avoiding memory transfers between host and GPU—which will substantially accelerate reconstruction times. This in turn will allow the application of LM-SPDHG in routine clinical practice where short reconstruction times are crucial.

Time of Flight in Perspective: Instrumental and Computational Aspects of Time Resolution in Positron Emission Tomography.

The first time-of-flight positron emission tomography (TOF-PET) scanners were developed as early as in the 1980s. However, the poor light output and low detection efficiency of TOF-capable detectors available at the time limited any gain in image quality achieved with these TOF-PET scanners over the traditional non-TOF PET scanners. The discovery of LSO and other Lu-based scintillators revived interest in TOF-PET and led to the development of a second generation of scanners with high sensitivity and spatial resolution in the mid-2000s. The introduction of the silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) has recently yielded a third generation of TOF-PET systems with unprecedented imaging performance. Parallel to these instrumentation developments, much progress has been made in the development of image reconstruction algorithms that better utilize the additional information provided by TOF. Overall, the benefits range from a reduction in image variance (SNR increase), through allowing joint estimation of activity and attenuation, to better reconstructing data from limited angle systems. In this work, we review these developments, focusing on three broad areas: 1) timing theory and factors affecting the time resolution of a TOF-PET system; 2) utilization of TOF information for improved image reconstruction; and 3) quantification of the benefits of TOF compared to non-TOF PET. Finally, we offer a brief outlook on the TOF-PET developments anticipated in the short and longer term. Throughout this work, we aim to maintain a clinically driven perspective, treating TOF as one of multiple (and sometimes competitive) factors that can aid in the optimization of PET imaging performance.

Design consideration of compact cardiac TOF-PET systems: a simulation study

Myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) with PET plays a vital role in the management of coronary artery disease. High sensitivity systems can contribute to maximizing the potential value of PET MPI; therefore, we have proposed two novel detector arrangements, an elliptical geometry and a D-shape geometry, that are more sensitive and more compact than a conventional large-bore cylindrical geometry. Here we investigate two items: the benefits of the proposed geometries for cardiac imaging; and the effects of scatter components on cardiac PET image quality. Using the Geant4 toolkit, we modeled four time-of-flight (TOF) PET systems: an 80 cm diameter cylinder, a 40 cm diameter cylinder, a compact ellipse, and a compact D-shape. Spatial resolution and sensitivity were measured using point sources. Noise equivalent count rate and image quality were examined using an anthropomorphic digital chest phantom. The proposed geometries showed higher sensitivity and better count rate characteristics with a fewer number of detectors than the conventional large-bore cylindrical geometry. In addition, we found that the increased intensity of the scatter components was a big factor affecting the contrast in defect regions for such a compact geometry. It is important to address the issue of the increased intensity of the scatter components to develop a high-performance compact cardiac TOF PET system.

Multimodal simulation of large area silicon photomultipliers for time resolution optimization

The Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM) sensor is replacing the extensive use of the Photomultiplier Tube (PMT) in fast timing applications. These photo-sensors can be applied in different fields such as medical imaging systems like Positron Emission Tomography (PET), LIDAR technologies or High Energy Physics (HEP) experiments. More specific, Time-of-Flight PET (ToF-PET) requires further developments to achieve a Coincidence Time Resolution (CTR) of 10ps, this enabling the real time reconstruction and in vivo molecular examination. The most recent state-of-the-art ToF-PET systems can reach 200 ps in CTR. Lowering this value will require a cross-optimization of the scintillator crystal, the sensor and the electronics at the same time. These three elements optimization will be the key to boost the timing resolution of the complete system. The aim of this work is to provide a simulation framework that enables this cross-optimization of the PET system taking into consideration the photon physics interaction in the scintillator crystal, the sensor response (size, dead area, capacitance) and the readout electronics behavior (input impedance, noise, bandwidth). This framework has allowed us to study a new promising approach that helps reducing the CTR parameter by segmenting a large area SiPM into “m” smaller SiPMs and then, summing the signals to recover all the signal spread along these smaller sensors. A 15% improvement on time resolution is expected by segmenting a 4 mm × 4 mm single sensor into 9 sensors of 1.3 mm × 1.3 mm with respect to the case where no segmentation is applied.

The current mode Time-over-Threshold ASIC for a MPPC module in a TOF-PET system

Silicon photo-multipliers (SiPMs) and multipixel photon counters (MPPCs) are solid-state silicon photosensors operating in the Geiger mode. These photosensors possess high gain and high timing performance. In the field of medicine, these photosensors are employed in positron emission tomography (PET), and their features are used for time-of-flight PET (TOF-PET). We designed a 48 channels front-end application specific integration circuit (ASIC) for MPPCs of the TOF-PET system. The circuit in the ASIC consists of a current processing method for realizing a high speed performance. At the output stage, a current mode Time-over-Threshold (ToT) circuit was implemented. The current mode ToT converts the current signal from the MPPC into a digital pulse signal and supplies the timing and energy information. We performed experiments for timing resolution measurement, spectra measurement, and coincidence measurement.

Development of a compact DOI–TOF detector module for high-performance PET systems

To increase spatial resolution and signal-to-noise ratio in PET imaging, we present in this paper the design and performance evaluation of a PET detector module combining both depth-of-interaction (DOI) and time-of-flight (TOF) capabilities. The detector module consists of a staggered dual-layer LYSO block with 2 mm × 2 mm × 7 mm crystals. MR-compatible SiPM sensors (MicroFJ-30035-TSV, SensL) are assembled into an 8 × 8 array. SiPM signals from both fast and slow outputs are read out by a 128-channel ASIC chip. To test its performance, a flood histogram is acquired with a 22Na point source on top of the detector, and the energy resolution and the coincidence resolving time (CRT) value for each individual crystal are measured. The flood histogram shows excellent crystal separation in both layers. The average energy resolution at 511 keV is 14.0 and 12.7% at the bottom and top layers, respectively. The average CRT of a single crystal is 635 and 565 ps at the bottom and top layers, respectively. In conclusion, the compact DOI–TOF PET detector module is of excellent crystal identification capability, good energy resolution and reasonable time resolution and has promising application prospective in clinical TOF PET, PET/MRI, and brain PET systems.

Achieving fast timing performance with multiplexed SiPMs

Using time of flight (ToF) measurements for positron emission tomography (PET) is an attractive avenue for increasing the signal to noise (SNR) ratio of PET images. However, achieving excellent time resolution required for high SNR gain using silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) requires many resource heavy high bandwidth readout channels. A method of multiplexing many SiPM signals into a single electronic channel would greatly simplify ToF PET systems. However, multiplexing SiPMs degrades time resolution because of added dark counts and signal shaping. In this work the relative contribution of dark counts and signal shaping to timing degradation is simulated and a baseline correction technique to mitigate the effect of multiplexing on the time resolution of analog SiPMs is simulated and experimentally verified. A charge sharing network for multiplexing is proposed and tested. Results show a full width at half maximum (FWHM) coincidence time resolution of ps for a single 3 mm × 3 mm × 20 mm LYSO scintillation crystals coupled to an array of sixteen 3 mm × 3 mm SiPMs that are multiplexed to a single timing channel (in addition to 4 position channels). A array of 3 mm × 3 mm × 20 mm LFS crystals showed an average FWHM coincidence time resolution of ps using the same timing scheme. All experiments were performed at room temperature with no thermal regulation. These results show that excellent time resolution for ToF can be achieved with a highly multiplexed analog SiPM readout.

Timing measurements of lutetium based scintillators combined with silicon photomultipliers for TOF-PET system

As time-of-flight PET (TOF-PET) gains popularity in clinical diagnostic, the coincidence timing resolution of PET systems becomes more crucial. The most common scintillators for commercial TOF-PET systems are Lu-based ones such as LSO or LYSO for their high light output, high density and fast decay time. Recently, LGSO with 0.025% Ce (LGSO-fast) was developed which has faster decay time than LGSO with Ce concentration of 0.1 mol% (LGSO-standard). Using the LGSO-fast in conjunction with silicon photomultiplier (Si-PM) may improve the timing performance for the development of TOF-PET systems. Consequently, we tested the basic performance of LGSO-fast and coupled them with Si-PMs to measure the coincidence timing resolution using a high bandwidth digital oscilloscope. The performance was also evaluated for LGSO-standard and other Lu-based scintillators such as lutetium fine silicate (LFS) and two types of LYSOs from other manufacturers. The light output was largest for one of the LYSO from one manufacture and smallest for the LYSO from other manufacture. Decay time was fastest for LGSO-fast (33.8 ns) and slowest for one of the LYSO (39.9 ns). Coincidence timing resolution for 2.9 mm long Lu-based scintillators, LGSO-fast was the best (156.5 ps) and one of the LYSO showed the worst (235.1 ps). For the 20 mm long scintillators, coincidence timing resolution was also best for LGSO-fast (273.2 ps) and worst for one of the LYSO (481.8 ps). We conclude that LGSO-fast combined with Si-PM showed best timing performance among measured Lu-based scintillators. Also within the same Lu-based scintillators such as LYSOs, we found that the performance differences were sometimes significant and quality control of the Lu-based scintillator is essential to achieve good performance in PET systems.

An Accurate Timing Alignment Method with Time-to-Digital Converter Linearity Calibration for High-Resolution TOF PET.

Accurate PET system timing alignment minimizes the coincidence time window and therefore reduces random events and improves image quality. It is also critical for time-of-flight (TOF) image reconstruction. Here, we use a thin annular cylinder (shell) phantom filled with a radioactive source and located axially and centrally in a PET camera for the timing alignment of a TOF PET system. This timing alignment method involves measuring the time differences between the selected coincidence detector pairs, calibrating the differential and integral nonlinearity of the time-to-digital converter (TDC) with the same raw data and deriving the intrinsic time biases for each detector using an iterative algorithm. The raw time bias for each detector is downloaded to the front-end electronics and the residual fine time bias can be applied during the TOF list-mode reconstruction. Our results showed that a timing alignment accuracy of better than ±25 ps can be achieved, and a preliminary timing resolution of 473 ps (full width at half maximum) was measured in our prototype TOF PET/CT system.

Time resolution deterioration with increasing crystal length in a TOF-PET system

Highest time resolution in scintillator based detectors is becoming more and more important. In medical detector physics L(Y)SO scintillators are commonly used for time of flight positron emission tomography (TOF-PET). Coincidence time resolutions (CTRs) smaller than 100ps FWHM are desirable in order to improve the image signal to noise ratio and thus give benefit to the patient by shorter scanning times. Also in high energy physics there is the demand to improve the timing capabilities of calorimeters down to 10ps. To achieve these goals it is important to study the whole chain, i.e. the high energy particle interaction in the crystal, the scintillation process itself, the scintillation light transfer in the crystal, the photodetector and the electronics. Time resolution measurements for a PET like system are performed with the time-over-threshold method in a coincidence setup utilizing the ultra-fast amplifier-discriminator NINO. With 2×2×3mm3 LSO:Ce codoped 0.4%Ca crystals coupled to commercially available SiPMs (Hamamatsu S10931-050P MPPC) we achieve a CTR of 108±5ps FWHM at an energy of 511keV. Under the same experimental conditions an increase in crystal length to 5mm deteriorates the CTR to 123±7ps FWHM, 10mm to 143±7ps FWHM and 20mm to 176±7ps FWHM. This degradation in CTR is caused by the light transfer efficiency (LTE) and light transfer time spread (LTTS) in the crystal. To quantitatively understand the measured values, we developed a Monte Carlo simulation tool in MATLAB incorporating the timing properties of the photodetector and electronics, the scintillation properties of the crystal and the light transfer within the crystal simulated by SLITRANI. In this work, we show that the predictions of the simulation are in good agreement with the experimental data. We conclude that for longer crystals the deterioration in CTR is mainly caused by the LTE, i.e. the ratio of photons reaching the photodetector to the total amount of photons generated by the scintillation whereas the LTTS influence is partly offset by the gamma absorption in the crystal.

Time of flight positron emission tomography towards 100ps resolution with L(Y)SO: an experimental and theoretical analysis

Scintillation crystals have a wide range of applications in detectors for high energy and medical physics. They are recquired to have not only good energy resolution, but also excellent time resolution. In medical applications, L(Y)SO crystals are commonly used for time of flight positron emission tomography (TOF-PET). This study aims at determining the experimental and theoretical limits of timing using L(Y)SO based scintillators coupled to silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs). Measurements are based on the time-over-threshold method in a coincidence setup utilizing the ultra-fast amplifier-discriminator NINO and a fast oscilloscope. Using a 2 × 2 × 3 mm3 LSO:Ce codoped 0.4% Ca crystal coupled to a commercially available SiPM (Hamamatsu S10931-050P MPPC), we achieve a coincidence time resolution (CTR) of 108±5ps FWHM measured at E=511keV. We determine the influence of the data acquisition system to 27±2ps FWHM and thus negligible as compared to the CTR. This shows that L(Y)SO scintillators coupled to SiPM photodetectors are capable of achieving very good time resolution close to the desired 100ps FWHM for TOF-PET systems. To fully understand the measured values, we developed a simulation tool in MATLAB that incorporates the timing properties of the photodetector, the scintillation properties of the crystal and the light transfer within the crystal simulated by SLITRANI. The simulations are compared with measured data in order to determine their predictive power. Finally we use this model to discuss the influence of several important parameters on the time resolution like scintillation rise- and fall time and light yield, as well as single photon time resolution (SPTR) and the detection efficiency of the SiPM. In addition we find the influence of photon travel time spread in the crystal not negligible on the CTR, even for the used 2 × 2 × 3 mm3 geometry.

Measurement on properties of MPPC for TOF-PET system

A large number of techniques are rapidly being developed for the diagnosis of cancer, including time-of-flight positron-emission tomography (TOF-PET). To construct an effective TOF-PET system, we introduced lutetium fine silicate (LFS) as a scintillator and a multi-pixel photon counter (MPPC) as a photosensor that exhibits a rapid response. In this study, we investigated four types of MPPCs with a sensitive area of 1 × 1 mm2 sensitive area and different pitch sizes. All MPPCs showed a timing resolution of 72 ps at the full-width at half-maximum with operating voltages of dV ∼ 3V (with the exception of the 100-pixels MPPC).

Timing Performance Evaluation of PMT-Quadrant-Sharing LYSO Detectors for Time-of-Flight PET

Time-of-flight (TOF) data can improve the imaging quality of positron emission tomography (PET) cameras by estimating the location of the positron annihilation. In this study, we measured the TOF resolution of lutetium yttrium orthosilicate (LYSO) blocks based on the photomultiplier-quadrant-sharing (PQS) design, which has no external light guide and therefore has higher light collection efficiency than the conventional block design with a light guide. We investigated three digital timing methods to achieve better timing resolution: constant fraction discrimination, leading edge discrimination, and linear fitting. A time-energy correction, estimated from a least mean square fit, was applied to minimize time walk caused by the variation of signal shapes. The average block-to-block coincidence timing resolution for two 13 ×13 blocks, each made of 4 × 4 × 20 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup> LYSO crystals, with fast R9779 PMTs from Hamamatsu (51-mm diameter) was estimated to be 422 ps (full width at half maximum). Another 13 × 13 block of smaller 1.4 × 1.4 × 10 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup> LYSO crystals coupled to regular 19-mm-diameter XP1912 PMTs from Photonis was also tested and an average block-to-block timing resolution of 527 ps was achieved. This study shows that with PQS detector blocks, good time resolution suitable for TOF PET systems can be obtained, as well as high spatial resolution and lower PMT costs.

Detection performance analysis for time-of-flight PET

In this paper, we investigate the performance of time-of-flight (TOF) positron emission tomography (PET) in improving lesion detectability. We present a theoretical approach to compare lesion detectability of TOF versus non-TOF systems and perform computer simulations to validate the theoretical prediction. A single-ring TOF PET tomograph is simulated using SimSET software, and images are reconstructed in 2D from list-mode data using a maximum a posteriori method. We use a channelized Hotelling observer to assess the detection performance. Both the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and localization ROC curves are compared for the TOF and non-TOF PET systems. We first studied the SNR gains for TOF PET with different scatter and random fractions, system timing resolutions and object sizes. We found that the TOF information improves the lesion detectability and the improvement is greater with larger fractions of randoms, better timing resolution and bigger objects. The scatters by themselves have little impact on the SNR gain after correction. Since the true system timing resolution may not be known precisely in practice, we investigated the effect of mismatched timing kernels and showed that using a mismatched kernel during reconstruction always degrades the detection performance, no matter whether it is narrower or wider than the real value. Using the proposed theoretical framework, we also studied the effect of lumpy backgrounds on the detection performance. Our results indicated that with lumpy backgrounds, the TOF PET still outperforms the non-TOF PET, but the improvement is smaller compared with the uniform background case. More specifically, with the same correlation length, the SNR gain reduces with bigger number of lumpy patches and greater lumpy amplitudes. With the same variance, the SNR gain reaches the minimum when the width of the Gaussian lumps is close to the size of the tumor.

Fisher information-based evaluation of image quality for time-of-flight PET.

The use of time-of-flight (TOF) information during positron emission tomography (PET) reconstruction has been found to improve the image quality. In this work we quantified this improvement using two existing methods: 1) a very simple analytical expression only valid for a central point in a large uniform disk source and 2) efficient analytical approximations for postfiltered maximum likelihood expectation maximization (MLEM) reconstruction with a fixed target resolution, predicting the image quality in a pixel or in a small region of interest based on the Fisher information matrix. Using this latter method the weighting function for filtered backprojection reconstruction of TOF PET data proposed by C. Watson can be derived. The image quality was investigated at different locations in various software phantoms. Simplified as well as realistic phantoms, measured both with TOF PET systems and with a conventional PET system, were simulated. Since the time resolution of the system is not always accurately known, the effect on the image quality of using an inaccurate kernel during reconstruction was also examined with the Fisher information-based method. First, we confirmed with this method that the variance improvement in the center of a large uniform disk source is proportional to the disk diameter and inversely proportional to the time resolution. Next, image quality improvement was observed in all pixels, but in eccentric and high-count regions the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) increased less than in central and low- or medium-count regions. Finally, the CNR was seen to decrease when the time resolution was inaccurately modeled (too narrow or too wide) during reconstruction. Although the maximum CNR is not very sensitive to the time resolution error, using an inaccurate TOF kernel tends to introduce artifacts in the reconstructed image.