Prior Simulation Test of a Total Body PET Scanner with Multiple Configurations

Total Body PET systems improve their capabilities by reaching more sensitivity than conventional PET scanners. Through Monte Carlo simulations, this work compares two different PET designs with similar dimensions (20 cm axial coverage) but different technologies (LYSO and BGO). This is a pilot study, new simulations extending the axial FOV to about 70 cm are undergoing.The first technology is based on LYSO slabs (25 × 3 × 20 mm, monolithic × pixel × height) that can combine good DOI information and a Detector Time Resolution (DTR) below 250 ps. The second one is based on thicker BGO pixelated crystals (3 × 3 × 30 mm), increasing the sensitivity but reducing the system cost. NEMA NU 2018 sensitivity and spatial resolution protocols were implemented for both configurations. The Jaszczack phantom has also been simulated to evaluate the Contrast to Noise Ratio (CNR). Besides the BGO system resulted on a superior sensitivity, the spatial resolution in the LYSO scanner is better than 3 mm in all the FOV and provides a superior performance in terms of image quality.