Performance Evaluation of a miniPET Camera for Brain Scanning

A nuclear miniPET camera was constructed with 2 bucket rings, each having 8 BGO detector modules for brain scanning. After calibration of the camera, an experimental investigation of sensitivity was carried out to evaluate the performance of this PET scanner. The characteristics of NECR were examined for comparisons of count rate considering the statistical noise due to scattered and random events. NECR performance was observed using 10 cm diameter phantom filled with 1 L water and 240 MBq of 18F. All data were acquired in 2D acquisition mode but without septa. Randoms were estimated by introducing delay into the coincidence circuit which was an extra 100 ns time delay. Multiples were recorded simultaneously with the prompt and delayed events. The true plus scattered coincidence events were calculated as the difference between prompt and random plus multiple events. After recording all the data, the noise equivalent count rate (NECR) was calculated and graphically presented. It is observed that NEC value is significantly lower than other similar scanners. Comparing the individual components of the count rate, a much higher randoms rate is observed for the camera because of the absence of any side shielding, so that out of field activity contributes significantly to the randoms rate and hence reduces the NECR value.