Researchers from Japanese industrial conglomerate Hitachi presented results at this week's SNM meeting of a prototype PET camera using semiconductor-based digital detectors rather than the traditional crystal-based design.
Researchers from the Central Research Laboratory of Hitachi, the parent company of Hitachi Medical of Tokyo, have developed the prototype system for brain applications. They believe that using semiconductor detectors could improve upon existing designs because smaller, thinner semiconductors are easier to adjust and arrange than analog crystals.
They also believe that the semiconductor design produces higher spatial resolution and less noise. Hitachi's design also uses what the company calls a depth of interaction (DOI) technology to reduce errors at the periphery of the camera's field-of-view.
The researchers specifically studied the prototype system in patients suffering from partial epilepsy and nasopharyngeal cancer. One of the units has been installed at Hokkaido University Hospital in Sapporo, Japan.
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