Fecha y hora: 13.01.2021, a las 10.00
Lugar: Online (https://u.i3m.upv.es/70ltb)
EFTHYMIOS LAMPROU
DEVELOPMENT AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF HIGH RESOLUTION TOF PET DETECTORS
Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is one of the greatest tools of modern diagnostic medicine and the most representative in the field of molecular imaging. This imaging modality is capable of providing a unique type of functional information which permits a deep visualization, quantification, and understanding of a variety of diseases and pathologies.
Although numerous important advances have already been achieved in PET, some other individual aspects still seem to have a great potential for further investigation. One of the main trends in modern PET research and development is based on the extrapolation of the Time-Of-Flight (TOF) information from the gamma-ray detectors employed in these systems. In such case, an increase in the effective sensitivity of PET is obtained, resulting in an improved signal-to-noise ratio of the image. However, the direction towards a precise decoding of the gamma-rays time arrival is a challenging task that requires, besides specific approaches and techniques, tradeoffs between cost and performance. A performance characteristic typically compromised in TOF-PET detector configurations is the spatial resolution. As it will be discussed, this feature is directly related to the scintillation materials and types, and consequently, with system cost and complexity.
In our research, motivated by the well-known benefits in clinical imaging of a precise time and spatial resolution, we study and propose novel TOF-PET detector configurations capable of inferring all desired characteristics. These developments are good candidates for the next generation PET scanners while they motivate a series of new efforts to further expand the potential of the PET standards.
