A new design of neuro-PET improving sensitivity

The improvement of sensitivity in neuro-PET is crucial because it can reduce the scan time and/or the radiation dose. In this study, we proposed a novel PET detector design that combined conical shape detector with cylindrical one (conical PET) to obtain high sensitivity. The sensitivity as a function of the oblique angle and the ratio of the conical to cylindrical portion was estimated to optimize the design of conical PET using Monte Carlo simulation tool, GATE v6.2. An axial sensitivity and misplacement rate by penetration of γ rays were also estimated to evaluate the performance of the conical PET. The sensitivity was improved by 36% at the center of axial FOV. This value was similar to the analytically calculated value. The misplacement rate of conical PET was about 5% higher than the conventional PET. The results of this study demonstrated the conical detector proposed in this study could provide subsequent improvement in sensitivity which could allow to design high sensitivity PET for brain imaging.