The SMART scanner: a combined PET/CT tomograph for clinical oncology

A combined PET/CT tomograph with the unique capability to acquire accurately aligned functional and anatomical images for any part of the human body has been designed and built. The PET/CT, or SMART scanner, was developed by combining a Siemens Somatom AR.SP spiral CT scanner with a partial ring rotating ECAT ART PET tomograph. All components are mounted on a common rotational support within a single gantry that has an axial depth of 110 cm. The PET and CT components can be operated either separately or in combined mode. In combined mode, the CT images are used to correct the PET data for scatter and attenuation. Fully quantitative whole-body images can be obtained for an axial extent of up to 100 cm in an imaging time of less than one hour. When operated in PET mode alone, transmission scans are acquired with two 15 mCi cesium sources. We report the first performance measurements from the scanner, and present some illustrative clinical studies.