CONTINUOUS SCINTILLATOR DETECTOR BLOCKS FOR SIMULTANEOUS PET-MR IMAGING OF THE HUMAN BRAIN

Continuous scintillator detector blocks have several advantages over pixelated designs, presenting a larger active volume and a lower cost with comparable or better energy and spatial resolutions. In this paper we describe the operation of continuous detector blocks for positron emission tomography (PET) and their suitability for multimodality imaging operating inside a magnetic resonance (MR) scanner. This detector technology is being used on a full-scale clinical scanner for human brain PET studies presently under development at Ciemat. Results will be presented on the laboratory characterization of monolithic scintillators coupled to APD matrices with ASIC readout, including images of point sources from a prototype dual-head demonstrator illustrating the potential of continuous scintillator detector blocks for high-resolution PET-MR imaging.