A New Tomograph for Quantitative Positron Emission Computed Tomography of the Brain

A new system (NEUROECAT) has been designed and built for quantitative positron emission computed tomography (PCT) of the brain. It consists of three octagonal arrays of bismuth germanate detectors (BGO) providing 5 simultaneous image planes. The design utilizes unique shielding and detector geometries which optimize uniformity in image and axial resolution and also minimize scatter and accidental coincidence rates. The basic system image resolution is 11.0±.4 mm FWHM with a total system sensitivity of 270,000 counts/sec/microcurie/cc uniformly dispersed in a 20 cm diameter cylinder.