Performance measurements of a pixelated NaI(Tl) PET scanner

A prototype PET scanner for whole body imaging with 4 mm /spl times/ 4 mm /spl times/ 30 mm NaI(Tl) crystals and Anger-logic readout has been built and tested. The scanner is composed of 36,540 NaI(Tl) pixels which are coupled to an optically continuous lightguide and a hexagonal closed packed array of 39 mm photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). The scanner is designed with a crystal-to-crystal diameter of 89 cm and an axial field of view (AFOV) of 25 cm. The main goals of this study are (1) to overcome the count-rate limitation of the continuous NaI(Tl) scanner (CPET), (2) to improve the spatial resolution and image contrast by using small pixels, and (3) to eliminate the relatively large data gaps between the detectors in the continuous NaI(Tl) scanner.