Enabling High-Resolution (~2 mm or better) Brain Imaging with a Standard Clinical Whole-Body PET: Simulation Study

A new method of achieving high-resolution imaging (~2 mm or better) with a standard clinical whole-body PET (WB-PET) has been proposed and investigated. The basic concept of this new method, dubbed as hybrid WB-PET imaging, is to convert the low-resolution projection data acquired by a WB-PET to high-resolution projection data through a mutual relationship between the low-resolution and high-resolution data, and such mutual relationship can be obtained through a preset calibration process with a set of dual low-resolution and high-resolution data acquisitions. The initial 2D simulation feasibility study has been conducted. The results show that the hybrid WB-PET can achieve ~1.1 mm spatial resolution compared to the 2.8 mm spatial resolution acquired by the standard WB-PET imaging under the ideal configuration and using an iterative image reconstruction. Although there are many remaining technical challenges to be investigated, if it can be achieved, hybrid WB-PET would transform the neuro-imaging study by using an existing WB-PET to achieve both high-resolution and high-sensitivity brain PET imaging (and possibly for other specific organ high-resolution imaging as well), which could have significant impact to improving PET/CT image based diagnosis and therapy guidance and even open the door for many new clinical research and applications.