A conformal TOF–DOI Prism‐PET prototype scanner for high‐resolution quantitative neuroimaging

Abstract Background Positron emission tomography (PET) has had a transformative impact on oncological and neurological applications. However, still much of PET's potential remains untapped with limitations primarily driven by low spatial resolution, which severely hampers accurate quantitative PET imaging via the partial volume effect (PVE). Purpose We present experimental results of a practical and cost‐effective ultra‐high resolution brain‐dedicated PET scanner, using our depth‐encoding Prism‐PET detectors arranged along a compact and conformal gantry, showing substantial reduction in PVE and accurate radiotracer uptake quantification in small regions. Methods The decagon‐shaped prototype scanner has a long diameter of 38.5 cm, a short diameter of 29.1 cm, and an axial field‐of‐view (FOV) of 25.5 mm with a single ring of 40 Prism‐PET detector modules. Each module comprises a 16 × 16 array of 1.5 × 1.5 × 20‐mm 3 lutetium yttrium oxyorthosillicate (LYSO) scintillator crystals coupled 4‐to‐1 to an 8 × 8 array of silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) pixels on one end and to a prismatoid light guide array on the opposite end. The scanner's performance was evaluated by measuring depth‐of‐interaction (DOI) resolution, energy resolution, timing resolution, spatial resolution, sensitivity, and image quality of ultra‐micro Derenzo and three‐dimensional (3D) Hoffman brain phantoms. Results The full width at half maximum (FWHM) DOI, energy, and timing resolutions of the scanner are 2.85 mm, 12.6%, and 271 ps, respectively. Not considering artifacts due to mechanical misalignment of detector blocks, the intrinsic spatial resolution is 0.89‐mm FWHM. Point source images reconstructed with 3D filtered back‐projection (FBP) show an average spatial resolution of 1.53‐mm FWHM across the entire FOV. The peak absolute sensitivity is 1.2% for an energy window of 400−650 keV. The ultra‐micro Derenzo phantom study demonstrates the highest reported spatial resolution performance for a human brain PET scanner with perfect reconstruction of 1.00‐mm diameter hot‐rods. Reconstructed images of customized Hoffman brain phantoms prove that Prism‐PET enables accurate radiotracer uptake quantification in small brain regions (2–3 mm). Conclusions Prism‐PET will substantially strengthen the utility of quantitative PET in neurology for early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases, and in neuro‐oncology for improved management of both primary and metastatic brain tumors.