0000000000320775
AUTHOR
Uygar Tuna
Compensation of missing wedge effects with sequential statistical reconstruction in electron tomography.
Electron tomography (ET) of biological samples is used to study the organization and the structure of the whole cell and subcellular complexes in great detail. However, projections cannot be acquired over full tilt angle range with biological samples in electron microscopy. ET image reconstruction can be considered an ill-posed problem because of this missing information. This results in artifacts, seen as the loss of three-dimensional (3D) resolution in the reconstructed images. The goal of this study was to achieve isotropic resolution with a statistical reconstruction method, sequential maximum a posteriori expectation maximization (sMAP-EM), using no prior morphological knowledge about …
Performance of the AX-PET Demonstrator
The goal of the AX-PET project is to build and test a demonstrator for a high resolution, high sensitivity PET scanner, based on a novel geometrical concept of long axially oriented crystals. The demonstrator comprises two PET modules used in coincidence. The two modules have been constructed and characterized (both individually and in coincidence) in dedicated test setups, with point-like sources. Good performance in terms of energy, spatial and timing resolution have been demonstrated. First measurements with extended phantoms filled with FDG-radiotracers have been recently performed.
AX-PET: Concept, proof of principle and first results with phantoms
AX-PET is a novel PET concept based on long crystals axially arranged and orthogonal Wavelength shifter (WLS) strips, both individually readout by Geiger-mode Avalanche Photo Diodes (G-APD). Its design was conceived in order to reduce the parallax error and simultaneously improve spatial resolution and sensitivity. The assessment of the AX-PET concept and potential was carried out through a set of measurements comprising individual module characterizations and scans in coincidence mode of point-like and extended sources. The estimated energy and spatial resolutions from point-like measurements are R FWHM =11.6% (at 511 keV) and 1.7–1.9 mm (FWHM) respectively as measured with point-like sour…
The AX-PET Concept: New Developments And Tomographic Imaging
The Axial PET (AX-PET) concept proposes a novel detection geometry for PET, based on layers of long scintillating crystals axially aligned with the bore axis. Arrays of wavelength shifting (WLS) strips are placed orthogonally and underneath the crystal layers; both crystals and strips are individually readout by G-APDs. The axial coordinate is obtained from the WLS signals by means of a Center-of-Gravity method combined with a cluster algorithm. This design allows spatial resolution and sensitivity to be decoupled and thus simultaneously optimized. In this work we present the latest results obtained with the 2-module AX-PET scanner prototype, which consists of 6 radial layers of 8 LYSO crys…
A Monte-Carlo based model of the AX-PET demonstrator and its experimental validation
AX-PET is a novel PET detector based on axially oriented crystals and orthogonal wavelength shifter (WLS) strips, both individually read out by silicon photo-multipliers. Its design decouples sensitivity and spatial resolution, by reducing the parallax error due to the layered arrangement of the crystals. Additionally the granularity of AX-PET enhances the capability to track photons within the detector yielding a large fraction of inter-crystal scatter events. These events, if properly processed, can be included in the reconstruction stage further increasing the sensitivity. Its unique features require dedicated Monte-Carlo simulations, enabling the development of the device, interpreting …
Long axial crystals for PET applications: The AX-PET demonstrator and beyond
The usage of long, axially oriented scintillator crystals in a PET scanner has been shown by the AX-PET Demonstrator as a possible solution for a high resolution and high sensitivity PET detector. In the AX-PET implementation, arrays of wavelength shifting (WLS) strips, placed orthogonally behind every crystal layer, are used to define the axial coordinate. After extensive characterization measurements, the AX-PET Demonstrator has been successfully used for the reconstruction of several phantoms and a few rodents. Possible extensions of the AX-PET concept towards Time Of Flight capabilities have been investigated, using Philips digital SiPMs as alternative photodetector. Promising CRT value…
AX-PET: A novel PET concept with G-APD readout
Abstract The AX-PET collaboration has developed a novel concept for high resolution PET imaging to overcome some of the performance limitations of classical PET cameras, in particular the compromise between spatial resolution and sensitivity introduced by the parallax error. The detector consists of an arrangement of long LYSO scintillating crystals axially oriented around the field of view together with arrays of wave length shifter strips orthogonal to the crystals. This matrix allows a precise 3D measurement of the photon interaction point. This is valid both for photoelectric absorption at 511 keV and for Compton scattering down to deposited energies of about 100 keV. Crystals and WLS s…