A new approach to very high resolution mini-brain PET using a small number of large detectors

A new very high resolution positron emission tomography using only a small number of large detectors in a circular ring format with collimating apertures is proposed and a design example is given. The proposed system is ideally suited for very high resolution brain imaging, i.e., close to 2 mm fwhm resolution and can be converted to a medium resolution system by simply changing the size of collimating aperture if higher sensitivity operation is desired. The basic concept of the system design is the optimization of the detector size and system diameter. The former relates to the detection efficiency and photon spillage and penetration to adjacent crystals, while the latter (system diameter) relates to the overall system sensitivity