NeuroPET HD: A low-cost, high performance neuro-PET imaging system

This revised proposal is in response to PAR"BRAIN InitiativeDevelopmentOptimizationand Validation of Novel Tools and Technologies for Neuroscience Research"Our overall goal is to enable positron emission tomographyPETas a practical and effective quantitative tool in understanding brain function and healthIn vivo functional imaging of molecular tracers will play a key role in unraveling the physiology and functioning of the human brain in normal and abnormal statesA fundamental understanding of molecular pathways and distribution in the brain will also play a key role in finding cure for ailments that affect the brainHoweverPET imaging systems currently used for whole body oncology have insufficient resolution and are too costly to meet the needs for expanding neuroimaging researchThere are no commercially available neuroimaging PET scannersin part due to the prohibitive expense of dedicated brain PET scanners using current state of art detectors and system designFor neuro PET imaging technology to be impactful it cannot compete with hospital purchasing decisions for PET CTSPECT CTMRI or CT systemsIt must be compacteasy to usetransportableand affordable so that it can be operated in outpatient clinicsphysiciansofficesand research facilitiese gneuroscience departments or pharmaWe introduce two key concepts to reduce system costs while improving performance compared to existing PET scannersThe first concept is a dual sided position sensitive sparse sensorPSarraywhich is a highresolutiondepth of interaction capable scintillation detector with fewer sensorsby halfthan traditional singlesided readout scintillation detectorsThe second concept is to strategically introduce gaps in parts of every other axial detector ringagap bridgedesignIn this mannerwe reduce costwhile still satisfying Orlov completeness condition for accurate image reconstructionFurthermoreopenings in the scanner rings can then be used to insert visual monitoring and display equipmentIn this phase I proof of concept applicationwe will validate the performance of the novel PET detector by building and testing a single detector ring prototype as preparation for a phase II proposal to develop a full commercial prototypeIn additionwe will use Monte Carlo simulation to study the performance trade offs between fully populated and our detector ring system with gapsOur hypothesis is that by using both sparse sensor array detectors and a detector ring system with gapswe will be able to achieve our design goals of better thanmm FWHM image resolution throughout the imaging field of view and greater thanabsolute detection efficiency