In the PET system a block detector, which is a position-sensitive photomultiplier (PMT) tube coupled to four arrays of 1.7-mm-wide BGO crystals, is utilized. Fifteen block detectors are positioned to form a 35-cm-diameter ring, with four BGO arrays coupled to each PMT. This provides four detector rings, giving the system a 7-slice imaging capability. The gantry head tilts up to +/-90 degrees , and is capable of moving up and down by 30 cm. These positioning capabilities allow flexibility and great ease of use in subject positioning. A gantry entrance size of 22 cm in diameter allows studies ranging from rats and mice to primates such as Rhesus and squirrel monkeys. The physical performance of the system has been evaluated.
A new method for preventing pulse pileup in scintillation detectors is proposed. In the new method (G-INT), the energy of an event is calculated from the 'gated integral' of the pulse signal and the period of integration. The period of integration is not fixed but is shortened by the arrival of the succeeding pulse so as to avoid post-pulse pileup. The effect of pre-pulse pileup is corrected by subtracting the remnant energy of the preceding pulses, which is calculated from the gated integral of the preceding pulse. To avoid error due to short pulse intervals, pre- and post-pulse deadtimes are imposed. The method is similar to Wong's method (W-SUM) that depicts the energy by the 'weighted sum' of the current signal and the integrated signal. The performance of G-INT has been studied by Monte Carlo simulation in comparison with W-SUM, the variable sampling-time technique and simple delay-line clipping. It is shown that G-INT provides the smallest degradation in pulse height resolution for a given count rate capability. The difference between G-INT and W-SUM is explained by the difference in the amount of statistical noise involved in the gated integral and in the weighted sum.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.