Purpose: A breast dedicated positron emission tomography (PET) scanner has been developed based on monolithic LYSO crystals coupled to position sensitive photomultiplier tubes (PSPMTs). In this study, we describe the design of the PET system and report on its performance evaluation.
Methods: MAMMI is a breast PET scanner based on monolithic LYSO crystals. It consists of 12 compact modules with a transaxial field of view (FOV) of 170 mm in diameter and 40 mm axial FOV that translates to cover up to 170 mm. The patient lies down in a prone position that facilitates maximum breast elongation. Quantitative performance analysis of the calculated method for the attenuation correction specifically developed for MAMMI, and based on PET image segmentation, has also been conducted in this evaluation. In order to fully determine the MAMMI prototype's performance, we have adapted the measurements suggested for National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) NU 2-2007 and NU 4-2008 protocol tests, as they are defined for whole-body and small animal PET scanners, respectively.
Results: Spatial resolutions of 1.6, 1.8, and 1.9 mm were measured in the axial, radial, and tangential directions, respectively. A scatter fraction of 20.8% was obtained and the maximum NEC was determined to be 25 kcps at 44 MBq. The average sensitivity of the system was observed to be 1% for an energy window of (250 keV-750 keV) and a maximum absolute sensitivity of 1.8% was measured at the FOV center.
Conclusions: The overall performance of the MAMMI reported on this evaluation quantifies its ability to produce high quality PET images. Spatial resolution values below 3 mm were measured in most of the FOV. Only the radial component of spatial resolution exceeds the 3 mm at radial positions larger than 60 mm. This study emphasizes the need for standardized testing methodologies for dedicated breast PET systems similar to NEMA standards for whole-body and small animal PET scanners.