Validation of a Monte Carlo simulation of the Philips Allegro/GEMINI PET systems using GATE
Phys. Med. Biol.. 2006-02-01; 51(4): 943-962
DOI: 10.1088/0031-9155/51/4/013
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1. Phys Med Biol. 2006 Feb 21;51(4):943-62. Epub 2006 Feb 1.
Validation of a Monte Carlo simulation of the Philips Allegro/GEMINI PET systems
using GATE.
Lamare F(1), Turzo A, Bizais Y, Le Rest CC, Visvikis D.
Author information:
(1)U650 INSERM, Laboratoire du Traitement de l’information medicale (LaTIM), CHU
Morvan, Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Brest, 29609, France.
A newly developed simulation toolkit, GATE (Geant4 Application for Tomographic
Emission), was used to develop a Monte Carlo simulation of a fully
three-dimensional (3D) clinical PET scanner. The Philips Allegro/GEMINI PET
systems were simulated in order to (a) allow a detailed study of the parameters
affecting the system’s performance under various imaging conditions, (b) study
the optimization and quantitative accuracy of emission acquisition protocols for
dynamic and static imaging, and (c) further validate the potential of GATE for
the simulation of clinical PET systems. A model of the detection system and its
geometry was developed. The accuracy of the developed detection model was tested
through the comparison of simulated and measured results obtained with the
Allegro/GEMINI systems for a number of NEMA NU2-2001 performance protocols
including spatial resolution, sensitivity and scatter fraction. In addition, an
approximate model of the system’s dead time at the level of detected single
events and coincidences was developed in an attempt to simulate the count rate
related performance characteristics of the scanner. The developed dead-time model
was assessed under different imaging conditions using the count rate loss and
noise equivalent count rates performance protocols of standard and modified NEMA
NU2-2001 (whole body imaging conditions) and NEMA NU2-1994 (brain imaging
conditions) comparing simulated with experimental measurements obtained with the
Allegro/GEMINI PET systems. Finally, a reconstructed image quality protocol was
used to assess the overall performance of the developed model. An agreement of