Functional Molecular Imaging: Planar Imaging To Pet

Functional molecular imaging is the medical imaging technology that provides functional information of physiological activity by displaying the concentration distribution of radioisotope labeled chemical compounds or biological molecular which pre-injected into the human body before imaging process. As typical functional molecular imaging modalities, positron emission tomography (PET) has recently received much attenation in oncology, brain and neuro science, drug development and metabolic activity research.Several novel strageties have been proposed in this this thesis:Firstly, a high performance positron detector system with the Flat Panl Position Sensitive PhotoMultiplier Tube (FP-PS-PMT) is applied for the imaging experiment platform design. The spatial resolution of the detector was evaluated by measuring the detector response functions (DRFs) for each BGO segment. The average FWHM values of the DRFs are 2.0mm. The crystal and energy identification abilities perform well, and the spatial linearity is improved evidently.A planar positron imaging system (PPIS) then is established with the new positron detector. Good spatial resolution and system sensitivity are achieved. This system also performs well in the application of the small animal imaging.Finally, the thesis also extends the PPIS to a Dual-Head Tomography with Coincidence (DHTC) system. Based on synethtizing Sinogram from the list-mode data, the initial 3-D imaging results have been obtained.