Digital Photon Counting PET/CT: The Physics Powering Precision Nuclear Medicine

Objectives The learning objectives will be: 1. Introduction to the fundamental physics of solid state digital photon counting in next generation PET detector technology (dPET) and how these innovations lead to the replacement of conventional photomultiplier tube-based PET detectors (cPET). 2. Review of the performance characteristics and technical advances of the dPET detector chain in a pre-commercial release dPET/CT system as compared to existing cPET/CT systems. 3. Review examples of the improved resolution and quantitative accuracy enabled with dPET technology as well as improvements in image quality as demonstrated using phantoms data acquired on both cPET and dPET systems.

Methods For more than one year, we have been operating a pre-commercial release, next generation, solid-state digital photon counting detector PET/CT system (Vereos). During this time, we worked in close collaboration with the system’s manufacturer to perform extensive phantom-based physics testing and fully explore the technical advances enabled with dPET detectors. We will review the fundamental physics intrinsic to solid state digital photon counting detector technology and compare its performance characteristics to those of cPET detectors. We will further explain which dPET detector attributes can be then leveraged to improve image reconstruction and illustrate these changes in simple terms using phantom data.

Results The exhibit will describe how dPET detector technical advances (e.g., improved time-of-flight timing resolution) lead to a variety of new opportunities for optimizing image acquisition and image reconstruction. These enhanced imaging capabilities have now expanded our perceptions and understanding of dPET’s role in precision nuclear medicine especially in terms of the clinical impact of reconstruction matrix size, voxel volume, lower dose and faster image acquisition times. We are eager to share our insight in order to help power a broader paradigm shift.

Conclusions This exhibit will demonstrate the physics and establish the technical foundation for new clinical applications enabled with next generation dPET detector technology and its potential for radically advancing precision nuclear medicine and molecular imaging. In particular, the potential for digital photon counting PET/CT systems to enable paradigm-shifting approaches to clinical PET acquisition and reconstruction protocols. RESEARCH SUPPORT: This work has been supported by the OIRAIN ODSA TECH 09-028 and IPP TECH 13-060 grants, as well as the R01 CA-195513 and R21 CA-202370 grants.