Evaluation of a 3-D Point Spread Function (PSF) Model derived from Monte Carlo Simulation for a small animal PET Scanner

We previously designed a component based 3-D PSF model to obtain a compact yet accurate system matrix for a dedicated human brain PET scanner. In this work, we adapted the model to a small animal PET scanner. Based on the model, we derived the system matrix for back-to-back gamma source in air, fluorine-18 and iodine-124 source in water by Monte Carlo simulation. The characteristics of the PSF model were evaluated and the performance of the newly derived system matrix was assessed by comparing its reconstructed images with the established reconstruction program provided on the animal PET scanner. The new system matrix showed strong PSF dependency on the line-of-response (LOR) incident angle and LOR depth. This confirmed the validity of the two components selected for the model. The effect of positron range on the system matrix was observed by comparing the PSFs of different isotopes. A simulated and an experimental hot-rod phantom study showed that the reconstruction with the proposed system matrix achieved better resolution recovery as compared to the algorithm provided by the manufacturer. Quantitative evaluation also showed better convergence to the expected contrast value at similar noise level. In conclusion, it has been shown that the system matrix derivation method is applicable to the animal PET system studied, suggesting that the method may be used for other PET systems and different isotope applications.