Simulation study of the second-generation MR-compatible SPECT system based on the inverted compound-eye gamma camera design

摘要

In this paper, we presented the simulation studies for the second-generation MRI compatible SPECT system, MRC-SPECT-II, based on an inverted compound eye (ICE) gamma camera concept. The MRC-SPECT-II system consisted of a total of 1,536 independent micro-pinhole-camera-elements (MCEs) distributed in a ring with an inner diameter of 6 cm. This system provided a FOV of 1 cm diameter and a peak geometrical efficiency of approximately 1.3% (as compared to the typical levels of 0.1%–0.01% found in modern pre-clinical SPECT instrumentations) while maintaining a sub-500 μm spatial resolution. Compared to the first-generation MRC-SPECT system (MRC-SPECT-I) [] developed in our lab, the MRC-SPECT-II system offered a similar resolution, but a dramatically improved sensitivity and a greatly reduced physical dimension. The latter allowed the system to be placed inside most clinical and pre-clinical MRI scanners for high-performance simultaneous MRI and SPECT imaging.