Validation of PeneloPET against two small animal PET scanners

PeneloPET is a Monte Carlo application based on PENELOPE. We present here the new features and results of validation tests for the new version of PeneloPET that has been compared against data from real scanners. PeneloPET was built as a powerful tool for PET simulation, it is easy to use, fast and very accurate. Recently, many improvements have been made in the code with the incorporation of a very realistic signal processing chain and by adding the possibility of running simulations in parallel mode on cluster computers. A comparison between data obtained with two small-animal scanners and the results of PeneloPET simulations has been performed. The small-animal PET scanners were an eXplore Vista DR (GEHC) and a partial-ring, rotating rPET (SUINSA medical systems). Intrinsic resolution, scatter fractions, noise equivalent count rates and sensitivity measurements for the real acquisitions and simulations were compared. NEMA protocol was applied using mouse-size and rat-size cylinders, spheres and line sources as phantoms. Results show small differences (less than 10%) between real acquisitions and simulated data, proving that PeneloPET is an accurate tool for PET simulations.