THE SUPER PET 3000-E - A PET SCANNER DESIGNED FOR HIGH COUNT RATE CARDIAC APPLICATIONS

Objective: Mathematical models for the delineation of regional myocard ial perfusion and metabolism with PET require faithful reconstruction of arterial and myocardial time-activity curves following administrati on of radiotracers. High temporal resolution is often required in such measurements. Many commercially available tomographs exhibit long dea d times that limit their count rate capabilities. To overcome these li mitations, we developed and tested a whole-body tomographic device (Su per PET 3000-E) with high count rate capabilities. The use of cesium f luoride scintillation detectors coupled with a one-to-one detector pho tomultiplier configuration reduces the system resolving and dead times . Materials and Methods: The Super PET 3000-E was subjected to a serie s of tests with phantoms to determine its resolution, sensitivity, lin earity, count rate capabilities, dead time, and random coincidence con tribution. Results: The system sensitivity is 136 kcounts/s/mu Ci/ml a nd its transverse and longitudinal resolutions are 8.5 and 10.5 mm ful l width at half-maximum, respectively. The system can easily record a total event rate of 2.0 Mcounts/s with minimal dead time loss and exce llent linearity. Conclusion: The system fulfills its design goals and allows the very high count rate performance needed for the application of the physiological models used in our cardiac studies.