Gamma Cameras for SPECT and PET

Topics:
• The Anger camera
• Reconstruction methods of the position of interaction
• Gamma cameras for PET
• PET time-of-flight (TOF)

Refs.
Physics in Nuclear Medicine, S.Cherry, J.Sorenson, M.Phelps, Elsevier.
Physics of PET and SPECT Imaging, M.Dahlbom, CRC Press.
Medical Imaging: Principles, Detectors and Electronics, K.Iniewski, Wiley. anche su digital radiography

Electronics Design for Biomedical Instrumentation

Prof. Carlo Fiorini 1
 PLANAR SCINTIGRAPHY AND SPECT
The Anger camera (1957)
2.57 cm for every PMT

Hal Anger (Berkeley)

Electronics Design for Biomedical Instrumentation

Prof. Carlo Fiorini 2
 The collimator

absorbed
distance from
patient, R
proportional to ! these are HOLES because
1/Z it is 3D

tilted gamma can reach the detector, so we have

a certain Resolution. reducing Z the resolution is
better
Electronics Design for Biomedical Instrumentation
Prof. Carlo Fiorini 3
 Spatial resolution COLLIMATOR given by separation of
RG : geometric resolution the source rays
provided by the

Rtot2 = RG2 + Ri2

distance to patient
Ri : intrinsic resolution of the
CAMERA

statistically independent detector capability of camera to detemine the

localization of the gamma ray (due to
computation and other errors sources)

d (L + z)
RG =
L

Sensitivity (efficiency)
COLLIMATOR kills lots of rays =>

d2 note: for d→0

S= k
L (d + t) RG→0 but also S→0
 resolution sensitivity
k : costant dependent on the need of a compromise

detector geometry
Electronics Design for Biomedical Instrumentation
Prof. Carlo Fiorini 4
Techniques for the reconstruction of the position of interaction:
The centroid method (center of mass)
configuration of the PMT from the top. they
usually have an exagonal geometry
because it gives a better sampling of light
the coordinates are retreived by the CENTER OF
MASS (weighted sum: if the weight is the amplitude
of the signal, and the signal is bigger where it hits,
the sum will give the point when it hits)

yellow= light distribution, when the ray hit in the red N x i i

x0 = i

Weighted sum of the

N i
i

photodetector signals
(signals are the weigths
g-ray
interaction
of the photodetectors N y i i

point coordinates) y0 = i

distribution of signal when

N i
i
light hits the center of the
photodetector
the method is so simple that it can be
implemented in hardware instead than
in software

Example of signals collected by the

units of a photodetector array
following the absorption of a g-ray.

Electronics Design for Biomedical Instrumentation

Prof. Carlo Fiorini 5
 x0 = i

N i
Limitations of the center of mass
REG 42
i

N x i i N y i i

x0 = i
y0 = i

N i N i
i
i
if we know the shifting of the points we can use a STRETCHING
ALGORITHM to correct this
(it is an artificial mechannism, it woludbe better to have a system

N y
without this problem)
i i
true point

lost light
y0 = i

N i
i

reconstructed
point

Missing contributions in the weighted sum due to border effects and

damaged units may result in biased and distorded result of the recontruction
we can't always change damaged units on the spot, so part of the weights are lost in the reconstruction, and the point will move to the other
fotodetectors partecipating

Electronics Design for Biomedical Instrumentation

Prof. Carlo Fiorini 6
Techniques for the reconstruction of the position of interaction:
The Maximum Likelyhood (ML)
estimation technique, is used also for the reconstruction of the image

measurement estimator
true measruement system what we measure ex. we can use the reconstructed coordinates taken by
solid angle formula maximising a probability function that given
??? coordinates are associated to the true data.
we find the best x,y,z as best estimate

Construction of an ‘estimator’: the reconstructed interaction point (X,Y,Z)

is the one which maximizes the probability for the estimation to
correspond to the measurements (best estimate)

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Prof. Carlo Fiorini 7
 We need to build a model of the detector:
analytical od montecarlo model of the detector that given O will calculate the number of è Ni collected number of e- collected by
ni(x,y,z) the unit i , calculated as
by the i photodetector

calculated with function of the position

the model
O(x,y,z) O(x,y,z)

mi number of e- measured
ni(x,y,z) by the unit i
having Mi and Ni we build a probability function: a conditional
probability. we suppose that having O means to have Ni, which is the
probability to measure Mi?
conditional probability
mi
this is P for a single photodetector
ni(x,y,z) exp(-ni(x,y,z)) (Poisson) to obtain mi
Pi(mi, ni(x,y,z)) = supposing the average
mi !
number of electrons equal
Pi
mi = ni is the maximization for the function

to ni(x,y,z):
Ntot

 P (m , n (x,y,z))
ni
joint probability for Ptot =
all units: i i i
because the best estimation has to be found i =1 mi is known, xyz are the coordinates that we are searching
respect to all the detectors

The best estimation of O(x,y,z) : ni(x,y,z) which maximizes Ptot

Electronics Design for Biomedical Instrumentation

Prof. Carlo Fiorini 8
 Example of the function of maximum likelyhood corresponding to a
measured event the method solves the problems of the center of mass because in the JOINT PROBABILITY WE USE
ONLY THE ACTIVE PHOTODETECTORS.
if a detector is broken we don't include it in the jount probability. if we have only a limited set of detectors
at the contour it is not a problem because we consider only the subset that takes the light.
obviously more detectors we use the more precise the image will be

centri dei detectors

Max ML (0,0,z) intorno a quello
centrale. un raggio al
centro dei sensori
intorno avrebbe
provocato un segnale
molto più alto, quindi se
il segnale è più alto in g-ray
quello al centro
abbiamo una minima interaction
possibilità che sia point
arrivato al centro di
quelli intorno

DOMANDE A CUI RISPONDERE:

Distribution of signals in
HOW CAN WE SELECT A SUBSET OF PHOTODETECTORS? (because of computational costs)
the photodetector
WHAT ARE THE HOLES IN THE FUNCTION?(they are related to the geometry, array that
a hole is a position
have less probability to produce the pattern)
Electronics Design for Biomedical Instrumentation
Prof. Carlo Fiorini 9
 experiment: sequence of points separated by 1mm

reconstruction with centroid

we cannot distinguish the points, and there is a contraction
(shifting to the center of the borders points)

recostruction with
maximum likelyhood 1 mm
the borders are still critical because we have
low statistics, but it is still better

Electronics Design for Biomedical Instrumentation

Prof. Carlo Fiorini 10
 Techniques for the reconstruction of the position of interaction:
The Neural Network (NN)
in maximum likelyhood we have an analytical model, here the model is built through training. in each neuron we have as input the sum of other weighted inputs

photodetector
coordinates
signals
of the
interaction
points

Electronics Design for Biomedical Instrumentation

Prof. Carlo Fiorini 11
 Training of the Neural Network by means of a set of
know events (coordinates → signals)
coordinates
of the event

signals
associated
to the events

very fast running after the training, the only operations are multipl. and sums that require few clocks, while the max.
Pros: likelihood requires mathematical computation (maximization)
NN: • Very suitable for FPGA implementation (multiplications and sums)
field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is an integrated circuit designed to be configured by a customer
Cons: or a designer after manufacturing – hence the term "field-programmable"

• Very long training phase

Electronics Design for Biomedical Instrumentation

Prof. Carlo Fiorini 12
Another possible application of NNs: reconstruction of
Compton events
another advantage is that the network can be trained with complex interactions
in this ex. we have 2 compton interactions, so we have 2 clouds of signal. if we give this pattern to a centroid it is a mess, the max. like. is not used to
find the max in 2 points, while ne NN we can train it to reconstruct different and complex sets of points

Electronics Design for Biomedical Instrumentation

Prof. Carlo Fiorini 13
 Impact of the photodetector/amplifier electronics noise
to the spatial resolution of the Anger Camera 30-4

electrons collected by the units of a

photodetector array following the
absorption of a g-ray of 140keV:

• scintillator: CsI(Tl)
g-ray
• G = 15 e-/keV
interaction • z = 5 mm
point
• electronics noise neglected
why do we have a non perfect resolution of the camera?
(means that if i give the signal more time i have an error)
this happens because despite the irradiation is for ex. in the center, the
contribution is not simmetric on the green and blu detectors
the Collection of é is affected by noise!
adding to this the electronic noise (seen as ENC) we add to the signal
fluctuation a new fluctuation associated to the electronic noise

The statistical spread of the

collected signals has an impact on
the precision of the reconstruction
of the position of interaction.

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Prof. Carlo Fiorini 14
 Signal fluctuation vs.
electronics noise

electrons collected by the first

19 photodetectors in
decreasing order of amplitude
from here we can compiute the spread.
we have a poissonian signal so we can find sigma=sqrt(number)
all the contribution changes by 10/20 é at the input

statistical fluctuation (s rms)

of the charge collected by the ENC = 15e- rms
photodetectors (Poissonian
statistics) ENC = 10e- rms

Ex.: to have the electronics noise

smaller than the statistical
fluctuation, ENC < 10-15 e- rms
if it is noisier, the resolution will be dominate by the electronic noise

Electronics Design for Biomedical Instrumentation

Prof. Carlo Fiorini 15
 Examples of the impact of the
electronics noise on the overall
spread of amplitudes
same signal as before but with electronic noise added. on each detector we add
a sigma of 15é. we can see that is not much different than before because 15 is
comparabile with the intrinsic spread of the signal

ENC = 15 e- rms

adding more noise than the one of the signal we have more
problems

NOTE: the effects of noise due to spread of the signal can be

reduced by improving scintillator and collector

ENC = 30 e- rms

Electronics Design for Biomedical Instrumentation

Prof. Carlo Fiorini 16
 sum of the number of photoelectron myltiplied by a
conversion factor given by calobration:giving an

Energy resolution
energy to the photodetector, we count the electrons
and we collect G?

Eg = G × i (Ni + noisei)

Ni : electrons collected by the unit i of the matrix

noisei : electrons associated to the electronics noise of the unit i

G : gain factor keV/e- order or 20kev/é

 the sum of the electronics noise of all the units of the array
(larger than a given threshold) contributes to the statistical fluctuation
of the computed energy so we will have a certain resolution also for energy

Electronics Design for Biomedical Instrumentation

Prof. Carlo Fiorini 17
 Anger Camera for SPECT
omographic technique: if we take only an
image we have a scintigrafy, if we rotate the
camera we can have the reconstruction for
spect

usually more than one head to cover the Total angle needed in a smaller time

Electronics Design for Biomedical Instrumentation

Prof. Carlo Fiorini 18
 Positron Emission Computed Tomography (PET)

coincidence
window (10ns)
(electronic collimation)

Electronics Design for Biomedical Instrumentation

Prof. Carlo Fiorini 19
 Gamma Camera for PET
are typically pixellated, with a resolution given by the
one of the single pixel

the collimators are not used to separe single elements,

but to separe tomographic planes on the patient.
if we allow rays to come not perpendicular to the
detector but to come storti, we will need an electronic
really efficiente because it should check any possible
coincidenze btw any possible detector. if we insert the
collimator we only check collimations in pixels inside
the same slab
=> they similify the reconstruction

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Prof. Carlo Fiorini 20
 The block detector for PET

In a block detector, a 2D array of crystals is attached to 4 PMTs.

The array is cut from a single crystal and the cuts filled with light-reflecting material. When
a photon is incident on one of the crystals, the resultant light is shared by all 4 PMTs.
Information on the position of the detecting crystal may be obtained from the PMT outputs
by calculating the following ratios and comparing them to pre-set values:

PMT C PMT D

PMT A PMT B

where A, B, C and D are the delta X

fractional amounts of light
detected by each PMT

Electronics Design for Biomedical Instrumentation

Prof. Carlo Fiorini 21
 consider the single pixel of the block detector of width delta X

The parallax error

DX if the crystal are tilted respect to the
DX’ > DX
if a gamma falls on the
rays, we can associate 2 different
yellow area the resolution
rays that interact at a different depth
is the same as if it falls in
in the crystal to a single signal.
the center. block detector's pixel the spatial resolution is therefore
the incertainty is given only
bigger than delta X => we loose
by the resolution of the
resolution
pixels

in standard PET we don't

measure the DOI

Depth Of Interaction (DOI) DOI

= ability to reconstruct the Z coordinate. it is not possible in the block detector crystal, maybe the light
distribution in the crystal is different but the output of the system is only X and Y
Here, resolution is affected also by parallax error,
Here, resolution is limited by pixel size (DX) only,
and it could be recovered to DX by the
independently on the information about the DOI
knowledge provided by the DOI

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Prof. Carlo Fiorini 22
Alternative detection
system for PET with
DOI capability
present area of improvement

Patient plane
the PMT provides the
coordinate of the crystal
interacting. these arrays are
oriented along the patient
plane, so that we can find the
DOI

PMT

PMT
!no more 4 PMT but a single position sensitive

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Prof. Carlo Fiorini 23
 PROBLEM here: if 2 scintillators are triggered simultaneously, we can have a problem because
we only have one PMT. we can always have superposition of coincident gammas

Z PSPMT2
before
X Y

PSPMT1
in order to have Y we have 2 PMTs: we look
to the different ratio btw light energy on right
and left PMT. when the light travels a longer
distance it is attenuated (ex. here the light on
right is more attenuated).

DOI Y X and Z coordinates are identified by pixel

selectrion
Pixelization in Z direction (in addition to X) Reconstruction on Y coordinate is obtained by the
allows to implement DOI reconstruction ratio of the signals collected by the PMTs which is
dependent on the position of interaction

Electronics Design for Biomedical Instrumentation

Prof. Carlo Fiorini 24
 PET-TOF (Time of Flight)

a bit of PET history:

• PET: 1950
• PET-TOF: 1960
in a time window
• PET-TOF first
prototype: 1980
L
• PET-TOF clinical
scanner: 2005
more than 40 year to have the first commercial machine
THE REASON IS TIMING RESOLUTION

Q: why 25 years to
x
get a first useful
instrument?
we can know the position of the event by measuring T2-T1
and multiplying it by the speed of light, divided by 2 (because x=0 is in the center of the image so Xmax=L/2)

NOTE: we don't have an absolute timing measure, but only the

Electronics Design for Biomedical Instrumentation difference relative to the arrival (because we don't know at what time
Prof. Carlo Fiorini
the signal starts) 25
 Resolution of the measurement in PET-TOF
jitter

Dx = Dt × c/2

c = 30cm/ns
if Dt ~ 3ns resolution avaiable up to few
years ago
Dt

 Dx ~ 45cm practically the diameter of the body => no additional information

having a jitter in delta T means having an error on the x coordinate

..the uncertainty in the position of annihilation is of the same

order of the diameter of the body of the patient….!

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Prof. Carlo Fiorini 26
 Dx = Dt × c/2

c = 30cm/ns
better detectors and electronics. the quality in electronics makes the difference!

if Dt ~ 300ps (now state of the art)

 Dx ~ 4.5cm not yet enough because pet resolution is in the order of millimiters
this is used not to identify the positron position but to improve the SNR of the image

• recent improvements in electronics timing resolution have

pushed an ‘old’ idea of PET TOF to reality….but

• resolution still not adequate for the reconstruction of the

annihilation point with a resolution required for PET (~mm)

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Prof. Carlo Fiorini 27
 èET reconstruction: a source of radiation is identified in standard pet by the intersection of the rays it is emitting

single source determined by the

intersection of the LORs
(lines of range)
or line of response

objects are NOT single points! even just with 2 points we will have some "fake" crossing (the
red dots) where we have crossing of range lines but not emitters

spurious intersections (no sources)

gives the noise in the image => SNR

the image of more than one sources 4.5cm

reconstructed with the criterion of LORs

intersection only is affected by spurious
intersections which reduce the S/N ratio
of the reconstructed image
the SNR could be improved with the TOF because we know that the source is belonging to a point in 4.5cm diameter.
this cuts out all the noises out of these 4.5cm

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Prof. Carlo Fiorini 28
 Benefit to S/N provided by TOF

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Prof. Carlo Fiorini 29
 single source identified by intersection
of segments with width determined by
the spatial resolution of TOF

excluded from
reconstruction

the spurious intersections are reduced

to only intersections between
segments (lower in number with
respect to previous LORs intersections)
 improvement on S/N
of the reconstructed image
gain in SNR = diameter of patient/resolution capability (deltaX)

Electronics Design for Biomedical Instrumentation

Prof. Carlo Fiorini 30
 • Variance Reduction Given by D/Dx = 2D/cDt
(D: diameter of the object) ??????????

• 500 ps Timing Resolution  8 cm localization

 5x Reduction in Variance! =40/8

5 TIME is a really big factor. we can both improve the image of 5 time OR give to the patient 5
time less radiotracer

Electronics Design for Biomedical Instrumentation

Prof. Carlo Fiorini 31
 now a days TOF is very expensive => there are

Future goal: 10ps TOF-PET? not many TOF PET but it is becoming more
standard in new machines

→ 1.5mm spatial resolution  ‘reconstruction-less’ TOF-PET?

if we obtain the positron position with a resolution that is equal to the imaging capability we use now,
we don't need any reconstruction: the postiron will be detected as a point and no more as a LOR

note: 10ps is almost the travelling time

of the light inside the crystal

https://the10ps-challenge.org/

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Prof. Carlo Fiorini 32