Medical applications of opaque scintillator radiation detectors

不透明闪烁体辐射探测器的医学应用

• 批准号: ST/V001361/1
• 负责人: Jeffrey Hartnell
• 金额: $ 11.3万
• 依托单位: University of Sussex
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ST%2FV001361%2F1
• 关键词: Medical; applications; opaque; scintillator; radiation

This project is to develop a novel radiation detector technology for medical imaging that will allow devices with substantially improved performance to be built in a more cost-effective way. In medicine radioactive tracers are routinely injected into the blood stream for imaging purposes. The most commonly used one is based on glucose, which is preferentially taken up by cancer tumours or other active parts of the body thus concentrating the radioactivity. Radioisotopes that decay by emitting positrons are used since the annihilation with electrons gives rise to two 0.51 MeV gamma rays that are emitted in opposite directions (back-to-back) and typically escape from the body. Images can be formed by recording the positions and times of the gammas from thousands, or even millions, of radioactive decays. This is the technique used in a Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanner. These scanners are growing in demand yet their high price (typically £1.5 million per scanner) is a factor that limits their availability. The scintillation crystals used to detect the gamma rays are a substantial fraction of the cost. The objective of this project is to develop a new opaque scintillator detector that will allow larger, higher performance scanners to be built in a more cost-effective way.Many radiation detectors use scintillators, which are materials that give off light when radiation such as gamma rays hits them. Traditionally, scintillators have always been transparent, and this was necessary to allow detection of the light. The new concept that will be applied in this project is to use the combination of an opaque scintillator and a lattice of fibre optic cables. The opacity causes the light to bounce around close to where it is produced and then the fibres extract the light. Such a configuration enables high-resolution imaging capabilities at a lower cost. In the first half of this project we will investigate multiple scintillators in opaque form to establish their performance in combination with different configurations of wavelength shifting fibre optic cables. The results from those investigations will inform our design of a prototype radiation detector for medical imaging that will be built in the second half of the project.

该项目是为医学成像开发一种新型的辐射探测器技术，该技术将允许以更具成本效益的方式构建具有大幅改进性能的设备。在医学中，放射性示踪剂通常会以成像目的注入血液。最常用的一种是基于葡萄糖，葡萄糖最好被癌症肿瘤或身体其他活性部位吸收，从而浓缩了放射性。使用发射正上的衰减的放射性同位素是使用，因为用电子的歼灭产生了两种0.51 MEV伽玛射线，它们以相反的方向发射（背靠背）并脱离体内。图像可以通过记录数千甚至数百万放射性衰减的伽玛的位置和时间来形成。这是正电子发射断层扫描（PET）扫描仪中使用的技术。这些扫描仪的需求增长，但其高价（通常为每扫描仪150万英镑）是限制其可用性的因素。用于检测伽马射线的闪烁晶体是成本的很大一部分。该项目的目的是开发一种新的不透明闪烁体检测器，该检测器将允许以更具成本效益的方式构建更大，更高的性能扫描仪。许多辐射探测器使用闪烁器，这些闪光灯是在诸如伽马射线（Gamma Rays）击中辐射时散发出光线的材料。传统上，闪光灯一直是透明的，这对于允许检测光是必不可少的。该项目将应用的新概念是使用不透明的闪烁体和光纤电缆的晶格的组合。不透明度会导致光弹性在靠近产生的位置，然后纤维提取光。这样的配置可以以较低的成本实现高分辨率成像功能。在该项目的上半年，我们将以不透明的形式研究多个闪烁体，以结合波长移动光纤电缆的不同配置来确定其性能。这些调查的结果将为我们设计用于医学成像的原型辐射探测器的设计，该原型将在项目的下半年构建。