Exploring the potential of a Cherenkov TOF PET scanner: a simulation study

The detection of annihilation photons in PET is based on scintillation light detection, but an interesting alternative is detection based on Cherenkov photons. Dense Cherenkov radiators provide an opportunity for high gamma detection efficiency -due to their high stopping power and photofraction -an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on radiation and plasma medical sciences 2023-01, Vol.7 (1), p.1-1
Main Authors: Razdevsek, G., Pestotnik, R., Krizan, P., Korpar, S., Consuegra, D., Seljak, A., Studen, A., Dolenec, R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
CASToR
Cerenkov counters
Cherenkov radiation
Costs
Crystals
Detectors
Efficiency
Emission analysis
Energy resolution
Geant4/GATE Monte Carlo simulation
Image quality
multi-sided crystal readout
NEMA NU 2-2018
PbF2
Photonics
Photons
Positron emission
Positron emission tomography
Radiators
Scanners
Simulation
Simulation analysis
Stopping power
Surface treatment
Timing
TOF PET
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Summary:The detection of annihilation photons in PET is based on scintillation light detection, but an interesting alternative is detection based on Cherenkov photons. Dense Cherenkov radiators provide an opportunity for high gamma detection efficiency -due to their high stopping power and photofraction -and excellent coincidence time resolution (CTR). However, because only a few tens of Cherenkov photons follow a gamma interaction in the radiator, the detection efficiency and the energy resolution of a pure Cherenkov detector are an issue. This work explores gamma detection efficiency and CTR of PbF2 based detectors with different surface treatments and photo-detectors covering one, two, or all crystal faces. Following the detector simulation analysis, we investigate the potential performance of a full-size Cherenkov PET scanner and quantitatively compare image quality with a commercial clinical PET scanner. We demonstrate that even though pure Cherenkov scanners have basically no energy resolution, the scatter fraction of around 50 is not prohibitively large, and images comparable to the stateof-the-art clinical PET scanner can be achieved due to improved efficiency and CTR attainable with PbF2.
ISSN:2469-7311
2469-7303
DOI:10.1109/TRPMS.2022.3202138