In this work, we evaluated the performance of the 5-ring Discovery MI PET/CT scanner following the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) NU-2012 standards [Ref], and measured the coincidence time resolution and energy resolution of the scanner. With additional phantom measurements, we studied the effect of different reconstruction algorithms and parameters on the system performance. 

Materials and Methods

PET performance based on the NEMA NU-2 2012 standards

Spatial Resolution -- 

The spatial resolution was measured using 3 point sources created with capillary tubes filled with 18F-FDG (radial offsets 1, 10, and 20 cm). The point sources were placed at 2 axial positions: the center of the FOV and 9.4 cm from the center of the FOV (1/8 of the axial FOV from the end of the tomography). Data were acquired for 1 min at each axial position and reconstructed using the filtered back projection algorithm (FBP). The full width at half maximum (FWHM) and full width at tenth maximum (FWTM) were calculated at each source position.