高分辨率及高灵敏度小动物PET研究进展

作为一种高灵敏度且具有定量测量能力的功能分子影像技术,小动物PET越来越广泛地用于各种生物医学研究,例如疾病动物模型研究、新药物研发和新治疗方法评估等。首先回顾小动物PET成像系统的发展历史、效率和空间分辨率等性能的改进和产业化;其次,讨论了影响PET空间分辨率和效率的各种因素,包括晶体大小、探测器几何、正电子射程、光子非共线效应、图像重建算法和阻碍PET系统同时达到高空间分辨率和高效率的相互作用深度不确定效应;最后,介绍了小动物PET成像系统在以下几个方面的取得的最新进展:（1）高密度、小的光衰减常数和高光产额的闪烁晶体;（2）体积小、增益大、时间性能好、工作电压低和磁兼容的新型硅光电倍增管光探测器;（3）各种深度测量PET探测器,详细介绍了一个可达到分辨0.43 mm×0.43 mm×20 mm晶格和达到2.4 mm深度分辨率的双端读出探测器;（4）使用深度测量探测器的小动物PET成像系统,详细介绍了一个使用高分辨率双端读出探测器,全视野达到0.55 mm平均位置分辨率的小动物PET原型系统;（5）磁兼容插件式小动物PET成像系统和PET/MRI同时成像的优点;（6）小动物PET图像重建和数据校正的特点、传统的滤波反投影算法和新的迭代算法的优缺点和PET图像重建算法未来的发展方向。As the most sensitive and quantitative molecular imaging technique,small animal positron emission tomography (PET) has become a widely used tool in biomedical research such as in animal model of human disease,development of new drugs and the evaluation of new therapeutics.In this paper,first the history,the efforts to improve the spatial resolution and sensitivity as well as the commercialization process of small animal PET scanner are reviewed.Then the factors that affect the spatial resolution and sensitivity of PET scanner such as crystal size,detector geometry,positron range,photon noncollinearity and imaging reconstruction are discussed in detail.The depth of interaction effect which hinders the simultaneous achievement of PET spatial resolution and sensitivity are also discussed.Finally the recent progress made in the following areas of small animal PET instrumentation are introduced:(1) high density,short light decay constant and bright scintillator,(2) compact,high gain,good timing resolution,low bias voltage and MRI compatible silicon photomultiplier,(3) depth encoding detectors by using different methods,a detector using dual-ended readout,identifying 0.43 mm×0.43 mm×20 mm crystals and achieving a 2.4 mm depth of interaction resolution was introduced in detail,(4) small animal PET scanners using depth encoding detectors,a prototype scanner using high resolution dualended readout detectors and achieving an average of 0.55 mm spatial resolution in the whole field of view was introduced in detail.(5) MRI compatible small animal PET inserts and the advantage of simultaneous PET/MRI imaging,(6) image reconstruction and data correction of small animal PET,the filter back projection and iterative reconstruction algorithms are compared and a few key directions of PET image reconstruction will be presented.