Dr
Christian Ritzer
(Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics, ETH Zürich, Switzerland)
The PETITION (PET for InTensive care units and Innovative protON therapy) collaboration is currently developing two Positron Emission Tomography (PET) systems with a focus on new clinical applications. Both PET scanners are dedicated brain systems with 179 mm axial field of view and an inner diameter of 300 mm. The first system (ICU-system) is a mobile PET scanner. It will be moved to the patients in the intensive care units (ICU), who cannot be transferred to conventional imaging facilities. The second system (PBT-system) is designed for online PET imaging in proton beam therapy (PBT). Its main difference to conventional PET scanners is an opening to allow for proton irradiation during imaging.
We developed a modular hardware system with identical readout modules for both PET systems. These comprise blocks of Lutetium-yttrium oxyorthosilicate scintillators, each with 5 × 5 crystals of 2.74 × 2.74 × 15 mm$^3$. For this study we perform a series of Monte-Carlo-Simulations with the Gate software package, to obtain estimates for the sensitivity profiles and spatial resolution.
Before coincidence search (2 ns window) the singles are filtered with an energy window (390 keV − 610 keV). We measure peak sensitivities of 3.19 % (ICU-system) and 1.54 % (PBT-system). The spatial resolution varies between 1.8 mm and 2.7 mm for the central region of both PET-systems. This is in agreement with the theoretical expectation for such scanners.
Dr
Christian Ritzer
(Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics, ETH Zürich, Switzerland)
Dr
Marina Béguin
(Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics, ETH Zürich, Switzerland)
Mr
Volker Commichau
(Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics, ETH Zürich, Switzerland)
Prof.
Peter Fischer
(Institute of Computer Engineering, University Heidelberg, Germany)
Ms
Judith Flock
(Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics, ETH Zürich, Switzerland)
Dr
Cristian Fuentes
(Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics, ETH Zürich, Switzerland)
Prof.
Tony Lomax
(Center for Proton Therapy, PSI, Switzerland and with the Physics Department, ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
Ms
Shubhangi Makkar
(Center for Proton Therapy, PSI, Switzerland and with the Physics Department, ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
Mr
Keegan McNamara
(Center for Proton Therapy, PSI, Switzerland and with the Physics Department, ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
Prof.
Mauro Oddo
(Direction Médicale CHUV et Service de Médecine Intensive CHUV, Université de Lausanne, Switzerland)
Prof.
John O. Prior
(Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Department, Lausanne University Hospital, Switzerland)
Dr
Michael Ritzert
(Institute of Computer Engineering, University Heidelberg, Germany)
Prof.
Andrea O. Rossetti
(Department of Neurology, Lausanne University Hospital, Switzerland)
Prof.
Damien C. Weber
( Center for Proton Therapy, PSI, Switzerland and with the Radiation Oncology Department, University Hospital of Bern and Zürich, Switzerland)
Dr
Carla Winterhalter
(Center for Proton Therapy, PSI, Switzerland and with the Physics Department, ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
Prof.
Günther Dissertori
(Institute for Particle Physics and Astrophysics, ETH Zürich, Switzerland)
