Raytest ClearPET™, a new generation small animal PET scanner

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2006.10.143Get rights and content

Abstract

The ClearPET is a high-performance small animal PET scanner that has been developed by the Crystal Clear Collaboration (CCC) and is now commercially available to customers worldwide through the Raytest group. Its high sensitivity and spatial resolution are achieved, thanks to a patented phoswich configuration made of two types of scintillating crystals: L(Y)SO and LuYAP:Ce, thus providing depth of interaction information. The ClearPET presents a modular design and it allows for 360° rotation of the detector modules around the field of view (FOV). The ClearPET also presents the unique feature of having an adjustable FOV diameter, thus being suitable for small and medium size animal PET studies. This paper shows the performances of the commercial ClearPET in terms of its spatial resolution, sensitivity and quality of phantoms and preclinical images obtained. It also describes the updated situation of the first commercial unit sold to the Animage platform in Lyon.

Introduction

Small animal PET scanners have become an extremely useful tool in new drug development and in imaging gene expression [1], [2]. The possibility of having dedicated small animals PET scanners with a size adapted to the animal object of study allows to perform the clinical studies with a much better spatial resolution and sensitivity.

In consequence, many biomedical research groups and pharmaceutical companies are interested in acquiring dedicated high-resolution small animal PET scanners.

The Crystal Clear Collaboration (CCC) was set up in 1990 having as main goal the development of new scintillating materials, which would be suitable for use in high-energy physics experiments. In 1995, the focus of the collaboration shifted towards γ-ray detection in biomedical applications. One of the first projects of the CCC was the so-called ClearPET project [3], the aim of which was to develop small animal PET scanners with a high sensitivity and resolution, and offering a maximum of flexibility and modularity.

A total of five different ClearPET prototypes [4] have been successfully built and at present the performances expected, therefore, a commercial version of this product was conceived. This new product (see Fig. 1) is commercially available through the Raytest group1 and presents the excellent performances of the existing prototypes, i.e., it is flexible and modular but indeed it presents an excellent sensitivity and spatial resolution all along the field of view (FOV).

Section snippets

Description of the commercial ClearPET

The commercial ClearPET scanner is based on the use of the multi-channel photomultiplier tube (PMT) Hamamatsu R7600-M64. These PMTs have a sensitive area of 18.1×18.1 mm2 consisting of 8×8 individual readout channels with a pitch of 2.3 mm. The crystals are assembled in a dual-layer phoswich [5] matrix consisting of 8×8 LYSO and 8×8 LuYAP crystal elements of size 2×2×10 mm3. The electronics can distinguish interactions in the LYSO and the LuYAP using the different time profile of their pulses [6].

ClearPET performances

In this section, we will present the performances of the commercial ClearPET. All results presented here correspond to scans made with the ClearPET installed in the Animage2 platform in Lyon.

Conclusions

The first commercial ClearPET scanner has been assembled and is currently functioning at the Animage platform in Lyon. The results obtained with this scanner confirm the excellent performances announced: Sensitivity ∼4% at CFOV and an average spatial resolution <1.3 mm at the CFOV, thus being fully competitive with other small animal PET scanners in the market.

Besides, the ClearPET presents many other innovative features such as its rotating gantry and its modular design. These two

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank all CCC members for their collaboration in the construction and characterization of the first commercial ClearPET, and Rhône-Alpes Genopole and Fondation Rhône-Alpes Futur funded by the Réseau National des Genopoles.

References (9)

  • E. Auffray

    Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A

    (2004)
  • N. Aznavour

    Journal of Chemical Neuroanatomy

    (2006)
  • J. Li

    Bone

    (2005)
  • R. Meyers

    Nucl. Med. Biol.

    (2001)
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (47)

  • Cognitive, behavioral and metabolic effects of oral galactose treatment in the transgenic Tg2576 mice

    2019, Neuropharmacology
    Citation Excerpt :

    ClearPET high-performance small animal PET scanner was used. Performances of the commercial ClearPET scanner in terms of its spatial resolution, sensitivity and quality of phantoms and preclinical images were described by Roldan et al. (Sempere Roldan et al., 2007). The used radiotracer - 18FDG was produced in situ by Ruđer Medikol Ciklotron d.o.o. (Zagreb, Croatia).

  • Glucagon-like peptide-1 mediates effects of oral galactose in streptozotocin-induced rat model of sporadic Alzheimer's disease

    2018, Neuropharmacology
    Citation Excerpt :

    After 30 min of uptake time, the animals were anaesthetised in the same manner and placed into a ClearPET high-performance small animal PET scanner. The performances of the commercial ClearPET scanner were described by Roldan et al. (Sempere Roldan et al., 2007). During the 30-min scanning, anaesthesia was maintained with 2% isoflurane in 100% oxygen with a delivery rate of 0.6 l/min.

  • Positron emission tomography in pebble beds. Part 2: Graphite particle deposition and resuspension

    2014, Nuclear Engineering and Design
    Citation Excerpt :

    In the present study the PET data was reconstructed using the OSMAPOSL algorithm of the reconstruction library STIR (Thielemans et al., 2012). The PET scanner in the present study is called ClearPET(TM) from Raytest (Sempere-Roldan et al., 2006) and was originally designed for small animal applications. The detector diameter can be varied between 135 mm and 220 mm.

  • Monte Carlo simulations of GeoPET experiments: 3D images of tracer distributions (<sup>18</sup>F, <sup>124</sup>I and <sup>58</sup>Co) in Opalinus clay, anhydrite and quartz

    2013, Computers and Geosciences
    Citation Excerpt :

    The potential of the method was communicated as an important experimental method for enhanced understanding of geochemical processes in soils and rock formations, for modelling and upscaling (Gründig et al., 2003; Richter, 2002). On this basis a ClearPET-scanner (Sempere Roldan et al., 2007) was acquired in 2007 and increasingly optimized for geoscientific questions (Kulenkampff et al., 2008a, 2008b, 2009, 2010; Wolf, 2011). Due to the adjustable gantry diameter of the ClearPET of 13.6 cm, respectively 23.7 cm, the necessarily miniaturised (and specialized detectors) achieve a considerably higher resolution and sensitivity than clinical PET scanners.

View all citing articles on Scopus
View full text