Performance of a high sensitivity PET scanner based on LSO panel detectors

We present the results of performance measurements for a new rotating panel detector research tomograph. The tomograph consists of five large-area lutetium oxyorthosilicate (LSO) panel detectors. A long axial field of view (53 cm), high sensitivity, and high count rate capability (due to recently developed fast electronics) are the most important features of this design. A peak noise equivalent count rate (NEC) of about 184 kcps has been measured, together with 2% absolute sensitivity for a 70 cm /sup 18/F line source and a spatial resolution less than 5 mm. Whole body patient images have been obtained, in two bed positions, 10 minutes per bed. An Ordinary Poisson Ordered Subset Expectation Maximization 3D algorithm (OP-OSEM3D) has been implemented on a dedicated computer cluster for reconstruction.