PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Joel S. Karp
AU  - Varsha Viswanath
AU  - Michael J. Geagan
AU  - Gerd Muehllehner
AU  - Austin R. Pantel
AU  - Michael J. Parma
AU  - Amy E. Perkins
AU  - Jeffrey P. Schmall
AU  - Matthew E. Werner
AU  - Margaret E. Daube-Witherspoon
TI  - PennPET Explorer: Design and Preliminary Performance of a Whole-Body Imager
AID  - 10.2967/jnumed.119.229997
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - Journal of Nuclear Medicine
PG  - 136--143
VI  - 61
IP  - 1
4099  - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/61/1/136.short
4100  - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/61/1/136.full
SO  - J Nucl Med2020 Jan 01; 61
AB  - We report on the development of the PennPET Explorer whole-body imager. Methods: The PennPET Explorer is a multiring system designed with a long axial field of view. The imager is scalable and comprises multiple 22.9-cm-long ring segments, each with 18 detector modules based on a commercial digital silicon photomultiplier. A prototype 3-segment imager has been completed and tested with an active 64-cm axial field of view. Results: The instrument design is described, and its physical performance measurements are presented. These include sensitivity of 55 kcps/MBq, spatial resolution of 4.0 mm, energy resolution of 12%, timing resolution of 256 ps, and a noise-equivalent count rate above 1,000 kcps beyond 30 kBq/mL. After an evaluation of lesion torso phantoms to characterize quantitative accuracy, human studies were performed on healthy volunteers. Conclusion: The physical performance measurements validated the system design and led to high-quality human studies.