Development of a High Resolution SPECT Detector with Depth-encoding Capability for Multi-energy Imaging: Monte Carlo Simulation / 의학물리

The aim of this work was to establish the methodology for event positioning by measuring depth of interaction (DOI) information and to evaluate the system sensitivity and spatial resolution of the new detector for I-125 and Tc-99m imaging. For this purpose, a Monte Carlo simulation tool, DETECT2000 and GATE were used to model the energy deposition and light distribution in the detector and to validate this approach. Our proposed detector module consists of a monolithic CsI(Tl) crystal with dimensions of 50.0x50.0x3.0 mm3. The results of simulation demonstrated that the resolution is less than 1.5 mm for both I-125 and Tc-99m. The main advantage of the proposed detector module is that by using 3 mm thick CsI(Tl) with maximum-likelihood position-estimation (MLPE) method, high resolution I-125 imaging and high sensitivity Tc-99m imaging are possible. In this paper, we proved that our new detector to be a reliable design as a detector for a multi-energy SPECT.

Coded Aperture Gamma Camera for Thyroid Imaging: Monte Carlo Simulation / 의학물리

A coded aperture camera has been developed to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) while keeping the spatial resolution of a pinhole gamma camera. The purpose of this study was to optimize a coded aperture camera and to evaluate its possibility for thyroid imaging by Monte Carlo simulation. A clinical gamma camera, a pinhole collimator with 1.0 mm hole diameter, and a 79x79 modified uniformly redundant array (MURA) mask were designed using GATE (Geant4 Application for Tomographic Emission). The penetration ratio, spatial resolution, integral uniformity and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) were simulated and evaluated as a function of the mask thickness. The spatial resolution of the coded aperture camera was consistent with the various mask thickness, SNR showed a maximum value at 1.2 mm mask thickness and integral uniformity was improved by increasing mask thickness. Compare to the pinhole gamma camera, the coded aperture camera showed improved SNR by a factor of 30 while keeping almost the same spatial resolution. In this simulation study, the results indicated that high spatial resolution and ultra-high SNR of the thyroid imaging are feasible using a coded aperture camera.

Optimization of Parallel-Hole Collimator for Small Gamma Camera Based on Pixellated Crystal Array / 의학물리

The purpose of this study is to optimize a parallel-hole collimator for small gamma camera having the pixellated crystal array and evaluate the effect of crystal-collimator misalignment on the image quality using a simulation tool GATE (Geant4 Application for Tomographic Emission). The spatial resolution and sensitivity were measured for the various size of hexagonal-hole and matched square-hole collimators with a Tc-99m point source and the uniformity of flood image was estimated as a function of the angle between crystal array and collimator by misalignment. The results showed that the spatial resolution and sensitivity were greatly improved by using the matched collimator and the uniformity was reduced by crystal-collimator misalignment.

Monte Carlo Simulation Codes for Nuclear Medicine Imaging / 핵의학분자영상

Monte Carlo simulation methods are especially useful in studying a variety of problems difficult to calculate by experimental or analytical approaches. Nowadays, they are extensively applied to simulate nuclear medicine instrumentations such as single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET) for assisting system design and optimizing imaging and processing protocols. The goal of this paper is to address the practical issues, a potential user of Monte Carlo simulations for nuclear medicine can encounter, to help them to choose a code. This review introduces the different types of Monte Carlo codes currently available for nuclear medicine, comments main features and properties for a code to be proper for a given purpose, and discusses current research trends in Monte Carlo codes.