High Performance, Low Cost PET Scintillators

高性能、低成本 PET 闪烁体

• 批准号: 8518097
• 负责人: KANAI SHAH
• 金额: $ 57.72万
• 依托单位: RADIATION MONITORING DEVICES, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-08-01 至 2014-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8518097
• 关键词: Alzheimer' s Disease; Area; Attention; Biological; Biological Process; Body Image; Caliber; Carbon Isotopes; Ceramics; Clinical; Communities; Coupled; Craniocerebral Trauma; Detection; Development; Diagnosis; Disease; Energy Transfer; Equipment; Evaluation; Fluorine; Functional Imaging; Gamma Rays; Goals; Growth; Healthcare; Image; Imaging Techniques; Isotropy; LSO crystal; Label; Laboratories; Length; Life; Light; Lutetium; Malignant Neoplasms; Measures; Medical Imaging; Methods; Nitrogen; Oils; Optics; Output; Oxygen; Pennsylvania; Performance; Phase; Photons; Physics; Play; Positron; Positron-Emission Tomography; Powder dose form; Preparation; Procedures; Process; Property; Radiation; Research; Resolution; Role; Stroke; Structure; Symptoms; System; Techniques; Technology; Temperature; Testing; Thick; Time; Tracer; Tube; Universities; Work; absorption; analog; base; clinical Diagnosis; cost; cost effective; density; detector; experience; improved; in vivo; interest; mathematical model; photomultiplier; response; thallium-doped sodium iodide

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is a functional imaging technique with the potential to quantify the rates of biological processes in vivo. The availability of short-lived positron-emitting isotopes of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and especially fluorine allows virtually any compound of biological interest to be labeled in trace amounts and introduced into the body for imaging with PET. The distribution of the tracer is imaged dynamically, allowing the rates of biological processes to be calculated using appropriate mathematical models. PET imaging can provide diagnosis for symptoms of diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's disease, head trauma, and stroke. It is clear that PET technology is playing a prominent and increasingly visible role in modern research and clinical diagnosis. However, to allow exploitation of the full potential of this promising technique, there is urgent need for both improvement in the performance of PET systems and reduction in their cost. Both of these factors are strongly influenced by the available detector technology. Scintillation crystals coupled to photomultiplier tubes are currently used as detectors in PET systems. Important requirements for the scintillation crystals used in PET systems include fast response, high sensitivity, high light output, good proportionality, high energy and timing resolution, and low cost. Traditional single crystals scintillators (such LSO, BGO and GSO) which are currently used in commercial PET scanners show considerable limitations either in performance aspects (such as low light output, poor proportionality and slow response) or in cost and availability aspects. With none of the well-established scintillators able to satisfy all the stated requirements of PET, the goal of the proposed effort is to investigate a new garnet scintillator that provides high gamma-ray stopping efficiency, high light yield, and fast decay time. The energy and timing resolution of these new garnetscintillators surpass those for the existing PET scintillators. Furthermore, due to their cubic structure and the associated physical and optical isotropy, these garnet scintillators can be fabricated using ceramic fabrication techniques, with properties rivaling those of the best crystals, yet remaining cost effective for fabrication in large quantities. This approach involves developing garnet detectors in the form of optical ceramics (OCs), rather than the single crystals. Consolidation of powder into a fully dense ceramic provides many advantages over traditional single crystal growth, such as lower fabrication temperatures and simpler processing equipment. It is the aim of this proposal to produce new garnet scintillators doped with Ce3+ and Pr3+ in the form of a fully transparent optical ceramics, which display scintillation performance better than that of best single crystals used currently in PET at significantly lower cost with wider availability. Construction and evaluation of detector modules for PET imaging based on optically transparent ceramic garnet scintillators is also planned in the proposed effort.

描述（由申请人提供）：正电子发射断层扫描（PET）是一种功能成像技术，具有量化体内生物过程速率的潜力。碳，氮，氧气，尤其是氟的短寿命发射同位素的可用性几乎允许生物学兴趣的任何化合物都以痕量标记，并引入体内，以与PET进行成像。示踪剂的分布是动态成像的，从而可以使用适当的数学模型来计算生物过程的速率。 PET成像可以为癌症，阿尔茨海默氏病，头部外伤和中风等疾病的症状提供诊断。显然，宠物技术在现代研究和临床诊断中起着突出且越来越明显的作用。但是，为了利用这种有希望的技术的全部潜力，迫切需要提高宠物系统的性能和成本降低。这两个因素都受到可用探测器技术的强烈影响。当前，与光电倍增管结合的闪烁晶体目前用作宠物系统中的探测器。对宠物系统中使用的闪烁晶体的重要要求包括快速响应，高灵敏度，高光输出，良好的比例，高能量和计时解决方案以及低成本。目前在商业宠物扫描仪中使用的传统单晶闪光灯（例如LSO，BGO和GSO）在性能方面（例如低光输出，差比例和缓慢的响应）或成本和可用性方面的限制。 由于无法满足PET的所有既定要求，因此提出的努力的目标是调查一个新的石榴石闪烁体，该闪烁体提供了高γ射线，该闪烁板可提供高伽玛射线，以停止效率，高产量和快速的衰减时间。对于现有的宠物闪烁体，这些新的石榴石燃烧器的能量和计时分辨率超过了这些弹药筒。此外，由于它们的立方结构以及相关的物理和光学各向同性，这些石榴石闪烁体可以使用陶瓷制造技术制造，其性能与最佳晶体的特性相媲美，但仍具有大量制造的成本效益。这种方法涉及以光学陶瓷（OC）而不是单晶的形式开发石榴石探测器。将粉末合并到完全致密的陶瓷中，比传统的单晶生长具有许多优势，例如较低的制造温度和更简单的加工设备。 该提案的目的是以完全透明的光学陶瓷的形式生产新的石榴石闪烁体，掺杂了CE3+和PR3+，该陶瓷的闪烁性能比目前以PET中使用的最佳单晶的闪烁性能更好，其成本明显较低，且可用性较宽。在拟议的工作中，还计划了基于光学透明的陶瓷石榴石闪烁体的PET成像的检测器模块的构建和评估。