Precise imaging of small animals using a dual-head microPET scanner

摘要

We believe that small-animal positron emission tomography (μPET) can play an important role in phenotyping and drug screening. For such applications, imaging throughput becomes an important issue because one needs to image a considerable number of subjects in a study. Toward enabling high-throughput μPET imaging, we are developing a prototype that consists of two large-area, high-performance flat detectors. These detectors are placed opposed to each other with a small spacing for providing large detection solid angle and detection sensitive volume. The resulting scanner geometry produces data having missing views and projection truncations, therefore posing a particular challenge in reconstruction. In this paper, we developed a new iterative reconstruction method that addresses this challenge. By using 2D simulated data, we find that this new method can accurately reconstruct an extended detection volume of the prototype. Because our prototype shares the same configuration with positron emission mammography (PEM), the new reconstruction method is also applicable for PEM reconstruction.