Whole body PET based on an RPC system

Positron emission tomography (PET) has become lately a widely spread technique for medical diagnosis, especially in the United States and Western Europe. Unfortunately, the high costs of a dedicated PET scanner are making this technique hardly accessible for the hospitals, clinics and institutes from the developing countries. An alternative to the scintillation crystals are the resistive plate counters (RPC). The physical properties as well as the lower costs of the RPCs allow us to build a detecting device to cover the entire body of the patient. The aim of this work is to evaluate the RPCs for 3D-whole body scan. This requires two steps: the simulation of data acquisition and image reconstruction. The method used in the image reconstruction was the filtered backprojection. It was adapted to the geometry and properties of the detection system. The results have proved that the capabilities of these devices could lead to the construction of an innovative and affordable PET system.