The breast-ring PET scanner features a ring of 12 detector modules with lutetium yttrium orthosilicate (LYSO) crystals connected to a photomultiplier tube, according to study presenter Andrew Polemi, a doctoral candidate in biomedical engineering at the University of Virginia.
The detector ring itself is mounted below a modified prone breast biopsy table, with detector light guides extending from photomultiplier tubes at an angle to allow for closer crystal access to posterior breast tissue near a patient's chest wall.
The researchers measured spatial resolutions of 1.8 mm in the axial, 1.6 mm in the radial, and 1.9 mm in the tangential directions at the center of the field-of-view, and they evaluated performance metrics for spatial resolution, sensitivity, and noise-equivalent count rate.
Preliminary findings suggest that the breast-ring configuration can scan a total of 19 cm along the central axis of a hanging breast, thus producing high-resolution PET images at clinically relevant count rates and enhanced coverage of the posterior breast.
