Performance improvement of Compton imaging of astatine-211 by optimising coincidence time windows

Astatine-211 is one of the promising radioisotopes for targeted alpha therapy. Optimising treatment strategies as well as determining the suitability of a given agent for a particular patient requires to image the time-dependent distribution of the targeted radiotherapeutic agent both in tumours and in normal tissues. Since the biodistribution of astatine is different from that of iodine, imaging astatine-211 directly is essential. In the previous study of astatine-211 Compton imaging, random coincidence events due to polonium K-shell X-rays were dominant and seemed to cause saturation of counts. Thus optimisation of the coincidence time windows is important to reduce random coincidence events. In this study, we have optimised the coincidence time windows of a Compton camera and improved the sensitivity, noise and spatial resolution of astatine-211 imaging.

Investigation of GaGG:Ce with TOFPET2 ASIC Readout for Applications in Gamma Imaging Systems

We investigated two detector modules, each consisting of a 8 × 8 matrix of GaGG:Ce crystals with a crystal size of 3 × 3 × 20 mm3 and a 3.2 mm pitch. The light is collected by a 8 × 8 silicon photomultiplier array, with one silicon photomultiplier matching one crystal. The signals are read out and processed using the TOFPET2 ASIC. Performed laboratory tests of the detectors were performed using a 22Na source, where energy and coincidence time resolution with different optical coupling were examined between the crystals and silicon photomultipliers, as well as under various operating voltages. The mean energy resolution of 9.8±0.6% at 511 keV was observed and it was shown that the coincidence time resolution of 384±33 ps could be achieved. The results reassure that the GaGG scintillator is a very promising candidate for the development of imaging systems, in particular, ones utilizing Compton scattering where the energy resolution plays a critical role and a moderate timing performance is acceptable.