Slat collimator design issues for dual-head coincidence imaging systems

This paper investigates optimum slat collimator design parameters for dual-head coincidence imaging (DHCI) systems. The noise equivalent count (NEC) rate was examined with respect to the activity concentration under various system conditions. All results are derived from Monte Carlo simulations with a digital anthropomorphic (Zubal) phantom. The DHCI system was modeled after the Millennium VG gamma camera (GEMS, Waukesha, WI). The dead-time characteristics of the camera were experimentally determined. Our results suggests that substantial NEC gains can be achieved by varying the slat-to-slat separation, such that the peak of the NEC curve is located at clinically relevant levels (i.e., 0.07 /spl sim/ 0.10 /spl mu/Ci/cc). The NEC was also found to increase with the use of longer slats with appropriately selected slat-to-slat separation. Furthermore, the NEC performance also depends on the count-rate performance (i.e., dead-time losses) of the system. Therefore, as improvements are made to the count-rate capabilities of DHCI systems, the slat geometry should be modified. Further study is required to determine the effect that slat collimator design has on image quality and lesion detection for clinically realistic imaging situations.