An analytical comparison between Bismuth Germanate BGO and Barium fluoride scintillators for non-Time-of-Flight positron emission tomography cameras
This study evaluates the use of BGO and BaF/sub 2/ scintillators in a non-time-of-flight whole body PET camera system. The high stopping power BGO system can use shorter crystals and is less susceptible to scatter coincidence. The shorter crystal depth causes less off-center resolution degradation without the need of inter-detector partitions which decrease the detection efficiency. Hence, the BGO scintillator systems have higher efficiency, while the BaF/sub 2/ scintillators have excellent timing capability. The BaF/sub 2/ timing coincidence window is only limited by the transit time of the gamma through the patient body and the attenuation ring source (9 ns) as compared to the typical 20 ns window for the BGO systems. The narrower timing window potentially implies lower accidental coincidence which in turn implies a higher count rate capability for BaF/sub 2/. This study quantitatively evaluates these trade-offs between BGO and BaF/sub 2/ for non-TOF systems and concludes that for non-TOF cameras BGO is a better scintillator choice, higher efficiency at lower radioactivity dosage and about the same maximum true coincidence rate capability as the BaF/sub 2/ systems (at 1:1 accidental to true rate limit). The real advantage of the BaF/sub 2/ detector is in the TOF PET camera applications.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, TX
- OSTI ID:
- 5972274
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-850611-; TRN: 87-039522
- Journal Information:
- J. Nucl. Med.; (United States), Vol. 26:5; Conference: 32. annual meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine, Houston, TX, USA, 2 Jun 1985
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
BGO DETECTORS
PERFORMANCE
QUANTUM EFFICIENCY
POSITRON COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY
SOLID SCINTILLATION DETECTORS
BARIUM FLUORIDES
CAMERAS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
EFFICIENCY
RESOLUTION
SENSITIVITY
ALKALINE EARTH METAL COMPOUNDS
BARIUM COMPOUNDS
COMPUTERIZED TOMOGRAPHY
DIAGNOSTIC TECHNIQUES
EMISSION COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY
FLUORIDES
FLUORINE COMPOUNDS
HALIDES
HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
RADIATION DETECTORS
SCINTILLATION COUNTERS
TOMOGRAPHY
550602* - Medicine- External Radiation in Diagnostics- (1980-)
440101 - Radiation Instrumentation- General Detectors or Monitors & Radiometric Instruments