Positronium imaging with the novel multiphoton PET scanner
P. Moskal, K. Dulski, N. Chug, C. Curceanu, E. Czerwiński, M. Dadgar, J. Gajewski, A. Gajos, G. Grudzień, B.C. Hiesmayr, K. Kacprzak, Ł. Kapłon, H. Karimi, K. Klimaszewski, G. Korcyl, P. Kowalski, T. Kozik, N. Krawczyk, W. Krzemień, E. Kubicz, P. Małczak, S. Niedźwiecki, M. Pawlik-Niedźwiecka, M. Pędziwiatr, L. Raczyński, J. Raj, A. Ruciński, S. Sharma, Shivani, R.Y. Shopa, M. Silarski, M. Skurzok, E.Ł. Stępień, M. Szczepanek, F. Tayefi, W. Wiślicki
abstract
In vivo assessment of cancer and precise location of altered tissues at initial stages of molecular disorders are important diagnostic challenges. Positronium is copiously formed in the free molecular spaces in the patient?s body during positron emission tomography (PET). The positronium properties vary according to the size of inter- and intramolecular voids and the concentration of molecules in them such as, e.g., molecular oxygen, O2; therefore, positronium imaging may provide information about disease progression during the initial stages of molecular alterations. Current PET systems do not allow acquisition of positronium images. This study presents a new method that enables positronium imaging by simultaneous registration of annihilation photons and deexcitation photons from pharmaceuticals labeled with radionuclides. The first positronium imaging of a phantom built from cardiac myxoma and adipose tissue is demonstrated. It is anticipated that positronium imaging will substantially
enhance the specificity of PET diagnostics.
Testing CPT symmetry in ortho-positronium decays with positronium annihilation tomography
P. Moskal, A. Gajos, M. Mohammed, J. Chhokar, N. Chug, C. Curceanu, E. Czerwiński, M. Dadgar, K. Dulski, M. Gorgol, J. Goworek, B. Hiesmayr, B. Jasińska, K. Kacprzak, Ł. Kapłon, H. Karimi, D. Kisielewska, K. Klimaszewski, G. Korcyl, P. Kowalski, N. Krawczyk, W. Krzemień, T. Kozik, E. Kubicz, S. Niedźwiecki, S. Parzych, M. Pawlik-Niedźwiecka, L. Raczyński, J. Raj, S. Sharma, S. Choudhary, R. Shopa, A. Sienkiewicz, M. Silarski, M. Skurzok, E. Stepien, F. Tayefi, W. Wiślicki
abstract
Charged lepton system symmetry under combined charge, parity, and time-reversal transformation (CPT) remain scarcely tested. Despite stringent quantum-electrodynamic limits, discrepancies in predictions for the electron-positron bound state (positronium atom) motivate further investigation, including fundamental symmetry tests. While CPT noninvariance effects could be manifested in non-vanishing angular correlations between final-state photons and spin of annihilating positronium, measurements were previously limited by the knowledge of the latter. Here, we demonstrate tomographic reconstruction techniques applied to three-photon annihilations of ortho-positronium atoms to estimate their spin polarisation without a magnetic field or polarised positronium source. We use a plastic-scintillator-based positron-emission-tomography scanner to record ortho-positronium (o-Ps) annihilations with a single-event estimation of o-Ps spin and determine the complete spectrum of an angular correlation operator sensitive to CPT-violating effects. We find no violation at the precision level of 10^{-4}, with an over threefold improvement on the previous measurement.
Simulating NEMA characteristics of the modular total-body J-PET scanner - an economic total-body PET from plastic scintillators
P. Moskal, P. Kowalski, R.Y. Shopa, L. Raczyński, J. Baran, N. Chug, C. Curceanu, E. Czerwiński, M. Dadgar, K. Dulski, A. Gajos, B.C. Hiesmayr, K. Kacprzak, Ł. Kapłon, D. Kisielewska, K. Klimaszewski, P. Kopka, G. Korcyl, N. Krawczyk, W. Krzemień, E. Kubicz, Sz. Niedźwiecki, Sz. Parzych, J. Raj, S. Sharma, S. Shivani, E. Stępień, F. Tayefi, W. Wiślicki
abstract
The purpose of the presented research is the estimation of the performance characteristics of the economic total-body Jagiellonian-PET system (TB-J-PET) constructed from plastic scintillators. The characteristics are estimated according to the NEMANU-2-2018 standards utilizing the GATE package. The simulated detector consists of 24 modules, each built out of 32 plastic scintillator strips
(each with a cross-section of 6 mm times 30 mm and length of 140 or 200 cm) arranged in two layers in regular 24-sided polygon circumscribing a circle with a diameter of 78.6 cm. For the TB-J-PET with an axial field-of-view (AFOV) of 200 cm, a spatial resolution (SRs) of 3.7mm (transversal) and 4.9mm (axial) are achieved. The noise equivalent count rate (NECR) peak of 630 kcps is expected at 30 kBq cc^-1. Activity concentration and the sensitivity at the center amount to 38 cps kBq^-1. The scatter fraction (SF) is estimated to 36.2 %. The values of SF and SR are comparable to those obtained for the state-of-the-art clinical PET scanners and the first total-body tomographs: uExplorer and PennPET.With respect to the standard PET systemswithAFOVin the range from16 to 26 cm, the TBJ-PET is characterized by an increase inNECRapproximately by a factor of 4 and by the increase of the whole-body sensitivity by a factor of 12.6 to 38. The time-of-flight resolution for the TB-J-PETis expected to be at the level ofCRT=240 ps fullwidth at half-maximum. For the TB-J-PETwith an AFOVof 140 cm, an image quality of the reconstructed images of a NEMAIEC phantom was presented with a contrast recovery coefficient and a background variability parameters. The increase of the whole-body sensitivity andNECRestimated for the TB-J-PET with respect to current commercial PETsystems makes the TB-J-PET a promising cost-effective solution for the broad clinical applications of total-body PET scanners. TB-J-PETmay constitutes an economic alternative for the crystal TB-PET scanners, since plastic scintillators are much cheaper than BGO or LYSO crystals and the axial arrangement of the strips significantly reduces the costs of readout electronics and SiPMs.
The J-PET detector-a tool for precision studies of ortho-positronium decays
K. Dulski, S.D. Bass, J. Chhokar, N. Chug, C. Curceanu, E. Czerwiński, M. Dadgar, J. Gajewski, A. Gajos, M. Gorgol, R. Del Grande, B.C. Hiesmayr, B. Jasińska, K. Kacprzak, Ł. Kapłon, H. Karimi, D. Kisielewska, K. Klimaszewski, P. Kopka, G. Korcyl, P. Kowalski, T. Kozik, N. Krawczyk, W. Krzemień, E. Kubicz, P. Małczak, M. Mohammed, Sz. Niedźwiecki, M. Pałka, M. Pawlik-Niedźwiecka, M. Pędziwiatr, L. Raczyński7, J. Raj, A. Ruciński, S. Sharma, Shivani, R.Y. Shopa, M. Silarski, M. Skurzok, E. Ł. Stępień, F. Tayefi, W. Wiślicki, B. Zgardzińska, P. Moskal
abstract
The J-PET tomograph is constructed from plastic scintillator strips arranged axially in concentric cylindrical layers. It enables investigations of positronium decays by measurement of the time, position, polarization and energy deposited by photons in the scintillators, in contrast to studies conducted so far with crystal and semiconductor based detection systems where the key selection of events is based on the measurement of the photons energies. In this article we show that the J-PET tomography system constructed solely from plastic scintillator detectors is capable of exclusive measurements of the decays of ortho-positronium atoms. We present the first positronium production results and its lifetime distribution measurements. The obtained results prove the capability of the J-PET tomograph for (i) fundamental studies of positronium decays (in particular test of discrete symmetries in purely leptonic systems), (ii) positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy, as well as (iii) molecular imaging diagnostics and (iv) observation of entanglement
A Simulation Study to Estimate Optimum LOR Angular Acceptance for the Image Reconstruction with the Total-Body J-PET
M. Dadgar, S. Parzych and F. Tayefi Ardebili
abstract
One of the directions in today's development of PET scanners is to increase their axial field of view (AFOV). Currently limited to several centimeters, AFOV of the clinically available PET tomographs results in a very low sensitivity (~1%) and requires an extended time for a scan of a whole human body. While these drawbacks are addressed in the so-called, Total Body PET concept (scanner with a significantly elongated field of view), it creates new challenges not only in the mechanical construction but also in image reconstruction and event selection. The possibility of taking into account of large-angle variety of lines of responses (LORs) contributes positively to the sensitivity of the tomograph. However, at the same time, the most oblique LORs have an unfavorable influence on the spatial resolution due to the parallax error and large contribution to the scatter fraction. This forces to determine a new factor -acceptance angle - which is a maximum azimuthal angle for which the LORs are still taken into image reconstruction. Correct determination of such factors is imperative to maximize the performance of a Total Body PET system since it introduces a trade-off between the two main characteristics of scanners: sensitivity and spatial resolution.
This work has been dedicated to the estimation of the optimal acceptance angle for the proposed by the Jagiellonian PET (J-PET) Collaboration Total Body tomograph. J-PET Collaboration introduces a novel, cost-effective approach to PET systems development with the use of organic scintillators. This simulation study provides evidence that the 45-degree acceptance angle cut can be an appropriate choice for the investigated scanner.
Optimisation of the event-based TOF filtered back-projection for online imaging in total-body J-PET
R.Y. Shopa, K. Klimaszewski, P. Kopka, P. Kowalski, W. Krzemień, L. Raczyński, W. Wiślicki, N. Chug, C. Curceanu, E. Czerwiński, M. Dadgar, K. Dulski, A. Gajos, B.C. Hiesmayr, K. Kacprzak, Ł. Kapłon, D. Kisielewska, G. Korcyl, N. Krawczyk, E. Kubicz, Sz. Niedźwiecki, J. Raj, S. Sharma, Shivani, E.Ł. Stępień, F. Tayefi, P. Moskal
abstract
We perform a parametric study of the newly developed time-of-flight (TOF) image reconstruction algorithm, proposed for the real-time imaging in total-body Jagiellonian PET (J-PET) scanners. The asymmetric 3D filtering kernel is applied at each most likely position of electron-positron annihilation, estimated from the emissions of back-to-back gamma-photons. The optimisation of its parameters is studied using Monte Carlo simulations of a 1-mm spherical source, NEMA IEC and XCAT phantoms inside the ideal J-PET scan- ner. The combination of high-pass filters which included the TOF filtered back-projection (FBP), resulted in spatial resolution, 1.5 times higher in the axial direction than for the conventional 3D FBP. For real- istic 10-minute scans of NEMA IEC and XCAT, which require a trade-offbetween the noise and spatial resolution, the need for Gaussian TOF kernel components, coupled with median post-filtering, is demon- strated. The best sets of 3D filter parameters were obtained by the Nelder-Mead minimisation of the mean squared error between the resulting and reference images. The approach allows training the recon- struction algorithm for custom scans, using the IEC phantom, when the temporal resolution is below 50 ps. The image quality parameters, estimated for the best outcomes, were systematically better than for the non-TOF FBP.
Synchronisation and calibration of the 24-modules J-PET prototype with 300 mm axial field of view
P. Moskal, T. Bednarski, Sz. Niedźwiecki, M. Silarski, E. Czerwiński, T. Kozik, J. Chhokar, M. Bała, C. Curceanu, R. Del Grande, M. Dadgar, K. Dulski, A. Gajos, M. Gorgol, N. Gupta-Sharma, B. C. Hiesmayr, B. Jasińska, K. Kacprzak, Ł. Kapłon, H. Karimi, D. Kisielewska, K.Klimaszewski, G. Korcyl, P. Kowalski, N. Krawczyk, W. Krzemień, E. Kubicz, M. Mohammed, M. Pawlik-Niedźwiecka, L. Raczyński, S. Sharma, Shivani, R. Y. Shopa, M. Skurzok, E. Stępień, W. Wiślicki, B. Zgardzińska
abstract
Research conducted in the framework of the J-PET project aims to develop a cost-effective total-body positron emission tomography scanner. As a first step on the way to construct a full-scale J-PET tomograph from long strips of plastic scintillators, a 24-strip prototype was built and tested. The prototype consists of detection modules arranged axially forming a cylindrical diagnostic chamber with an inner diameter of 360 mm and an axial field-of-view of 300 mm. Promising perspectives for a low-cost construction of a total-body PET scanner are opened due to an axial arrangement of strips of plastic scintillators, which have a small light attenuation, superior timing properties, and the possibility of cost-effective increase of the axial field-of-view. The presented prototype comprises dedicated solely digital front-end electronic circuits and a triggerless data acquisition system which required development of new calibration methods including time, thresholds and gain synchronization. The system and elaborated calibration methods including first results of the 24-module J-PET prototype are presented and discussed. The achieved coincidence resolving time equals to CRT = 490 +- 9 ps. This value can be translated to the position reconstruction accuracy s(Dl) = 18 mm which is fairly position-independent Keywords: positron emission tomography, plastic scintillators, J-PET.
Performance assessment of the 2gamma positronium imaging with the total-body PET scanners
P. Moskal, D. Kisielewska, Z. Bura, C. Chhokar, C. Curceanu, E. Czerwiński, M. Dadgar, K. Dulski, J. Gajewski, A. Gajos, M. Gorgol, R. Del Grande, B. C. Hiesmayr, B. Jasińska, K. Kacprzak, A. Kamińska, Ł. Kapłon, H. Karimi, G. Korcyl, P. Kowalski, N. Krawczyk, W. Krzemień, T. Kozik, E. Kubicz, P. Małczak, M. Mohammed, Sz. Niedźwiecki, M. Pałka, M. Pawlik-Niedźwiecka, M. Pędziwiatr, L. Raczyński, J. Raj, A. Ruciński, S. Sharma, Shivani, R. Y. Shopa, M. Silarski, M. Skurzok, E. Ł. Stępień, S. Vandenberghe, W. Wiślicki, B. Zgardzińska
abstract
In living organisms the positron-electron annihilation (occurring during the PET imaging) proceeds in about 30% via creation of a metastable ortho-positronium atom. In the tissue, due to the pick-off and conversion processes, over 98% of ortho-positronia annihilate into two 511~keV photons. In this article we assess the feasibility for reconstruction of the mean ortho-positronium lifetime image based on annihilations into two photons. The main objectives of this work include: (i) estimation of the sensitivity of the total-body PET scanners for the ortho-positronium mean lifetime imaging using 2gamma annihilations, and (ii) estimation of the spatial and time resolution of the ortho-positronium image as a function of the coincidence resolving time (CRT) of the scanner. Simulations are conducted assuming that radiopharmaceutical is labelled with 44Sc isotope emitting one positron and one prompt gamma. The image is reconstructed on the basis of triple coincidence events. The ortho-positronium lifetime spectrum is determined for each voxel of the image. Calculations were performed for cases of total-body detectors build of (i) LYSO scintillators as used in the EXPLORER PET, and (ii) plastic scintillators as anticipated for the cost-effective total-body J-PET scanner. To assess the spatial and time resolution the three cases were considered assuming that CRT is equal to 140ps, 50ps and 10ps. The estimated total-body PET sensitivity for the registration and selection of image forming triple coincidences is larger by a factor of 12.2 (for LYSO PET) and by factor of 4.7 (for plastic PET) with respect to the sensitivity for the standard 2gamma imaging by LYSO PET scanners with AFOV=20cm.
Estimating relationship between the Time Over Threshold and energy loss by photons in plastic scintillators used in the J-PET scanner
S. Sharma, J. Chhokar, C. Curceanu, E. Czerwinski, M. Dadgar, K. Dulski, J. Gajewski, A. Gajos, M. Gorgol, N. Gupta-Sharma, R. Del Grande, B. C. Hiesmayr, B. Jasinska, K. Kacprzak, L. Kaplon, H. Karimi, D. Kisielewska, K. Klimaszewski, G. Korcyl, P. Kowalski, T. Kozik, N. Krawczyk, W. Krzemien, E. Kubicz, M. Mohammed, Sz. Niedzwiecki, M. Palka, M. Pawlik-Niedzwiecka, L. Raczynski, J. Raj, A. Rucinski, Shivani, R. Y. Shopa, M. Silarski, M. Skurzok, E. L. Stepien, W. Wislicki, B. Zgardzinska, P. Moskal
abstract
Time-Over-Threshold (TOT) technique is being used widely due to its implications in developing the multi channel readouts mainly when fast signal processing is required. Using TOT technique as a measure of energy loss instead of charge integration methods significantly reduces the signals readout cost by combining the time and energy information. Therefore, this approach can potentially be used in J-PET tomograph which is build from plastic scintillators characterized by fast light signals. The drawback in adopting this technique is lying in the non-linear correlation between input energy loss and TOT of the signal. The main motivation behind this work is to develop the relationship between TOT and energy loss and validate it with the J-PET tomograph.
The experiment was performed using the 22Na beta emitter source placed in the center of the J-PET tomograph. One can obtain primary photons of two different energies: 511 keV photon from the annihilation of positron (direct annihilation or through the formation of para-Positronim atom or pick-off process of ortho-Positronium atoms), and 1275 keV prompt photon. This allows to study the correlation between TOT values and energy loss for energy range up to 1000 keV. As the photon interacts dominantly via Compton scattering inside the plastic scintillator, there is no direct information of primary photon energy. However, using the J-PET geometry one can measure the scattering angle of the interacting photon. Since, 22Na source emits photons of two different energies, it is required to know unambiguously the energy of incident photons and its corresponding scattering angle for the estimation of energy deposition. In this work, the relationship between Time Over Threshold and energy loss by interacting photons inside the plastic scintillators used in J-PET scanner is established for a energy deposited range 100-1000 keV.
Gate simulation study of the 24-module J-PET scanner: data analysis and image reconstruction
M. Dadgar, P. Kowalski, for the J-PET Collaboration
abstract
The Jagiellonian Positron Emission Tomograph (J-PET) is a novel PET
device that, in contrast to commercial PET scanners, is based on plastic
scintillator strips. Modular J-PET is the latest prototype that consists
of 24 modules arranged in a cylinder. In this study, 6 point-like sources
defined in the NEMA spatial resolution standard were simulated twice with
total activities of 60 kBq and 60 MBq, respectively. Results of simulations
were processed with the GOJA software and reconstructed with the QETIR
package
