New Horizons in Brain PET Instrumentation

Abstract

Dedicated brain PET scanners are optimized to provide high sensitivity and high spatial resolution compared with existing whole-body PET systems, and they can be much cheaper to produce and install in various clinical and research settings. Advancements in detector technology over the past few years have placed several standalone PET, PET/computed tomography, and PET/MR systems on or near the commercial market; the features and capabilities of these systems will be reviewed here.

Keywords: Brain PET; High sensitivity; High spatial resolution; Multimodal imaging; Neuroimaging; Positron emission tomography.

Figure 1.

Standalone brain PET scanners that allow the patient to be imaged in an upright seated position: (A) 4D-PET, (B) CareMiBrain, (C) NeuroLF (https://www.positrigo.com/product), and (D) VRAIN.

Figure 2.

Standalone brain PET systems that allow widely adjustable subject positioning: (A) the BBX PET system by Prescient Imaging (http://prescient-imaging.com/products/), (B) Pharos by Brightonix (image courtesy of Prof. Jae Sung Lee, CEO, Brightonix Imaging Inc.), and (C) the HIAS-29000 recently released by Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. (https://www.hamamatsu.com/us/en/news/products-and-technologies/2022/20221122000000.html). These three devices are equipped with a patient table designed to switch between chair and bed, allowing imaging of brain, breast, and other peripheral organs.

Figure 3.

Standalone brain PET systems designed to achieve best spatial resolution: (A) The first single-ring prototype of Prism-PET, developed at Stony Brook University. (B) The UHR / SAVANT PET scanner, from a collaboration between University of Sherbrooke and MGH.

Figure 4.

The NeuroEXPLORER (NX) PET/CT system: (A) Design drawing of the NX with CT (left) and PET (right). PET detector array shown on the right with shoulder cutouts to center brain in axial field-of-view. (B) Constructed NX system. (C) Detector design showing NX micro-block with DOI encoding with an optical bridge and dual SiPM readout. (D) Mini-deluxe phantom images reconstructed with TOF and DOI OSEM with 8 iterations (left) and 50 iterations (right); 10 subsets in each. (E) First human brain FDG images demonstrating exceptionally high resolution in the cortex and subcortical structures. (Images courtesy of Richard Carson, PhD, Yale School of Medicine PET Center.)

Figure 5.

3-T MR compatible PET inserts: (A) The PET Coil (https://www.petcoil.com/petcoil-system) and (B) Cubresa BrainPET (image courtesy of Cubresa Inc.).

Figure 6.

7-T MR-compatible PET inserts: (A) The Gachon University BrainPET , (B) the UHF BrainPET (image courtesy of Dr. Christoph Lerche, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany), and (C) the HDNCC. The rendering of the HDNCC insert highlights the effort in maximizing solid angle coverage of the brain by adopting a spherical geometry.