PennPET Explorer: Design and Preliminary Performance of a Whole-Body Imager

NEMA NU-2 count-rate performance with 70-cm line source inside 20-cm-diameter polyethylene scatter cylinder. Count-rate results were acquired up to 40 kBq/mL, although clinical ¹⁸F-FDG studies are typically performed with activity concentrations of less than 5 kBq/mL.

(A) NEMA image-quality phantom shown with standard spheres and half-sized spheres. Body activity concentration is 2 kBq/mL, sphere contrast is 9.7:1, and scan duration is 7.5 min. (B) CRCs as per NEMA guidelines for both standard and half-sized spheres. (C) Background variability as per NEMA guidelines for half-sized spheres.

(A) Clinical Trials Network torso phantom with activity concentration of 5.9 kBq/mL and lesion contrast of 4.2:1. (B) CRC of representative lesions as function of scan duration. (C) SD of CRC, determined from replicates of data.

(A) Representative sagittal (left), axial (middle), and coronal (right) views of 20-min PennPET Explorer image of subject 1 at 1.5 h after injection of 555-MBq dose of ¹⁸F-FDG. All are 2-mm sections. (B) PennPET Explorer image, subsampled (⅛ data) to represent 2.5-min scan. (C) Clinical scan acquired with Philips Ingenuity TF PET/CT scanner at 1 h after injection, using clinical protocol with 10 bed positions for total of 20 min. These data were reconstructed off-line with same reconstruction method as for PennPET Explorer data.

Sagittal (left), axial (middle), and coronal (right) views of PennPET Explorer images of subject 2 positioned with head near edge of AFOV (A) and at center of AFOV (B). These scans were acquired starting at 1.5 h after injection of ¹⁸F-FDG for 10 min each. All are 1-mm sections.