Feasibility study of the positronium imaging with the J-PET tomograph

Abstract

A detection system of the conventional PET tomograph is set-up to record data from e+ e- annihilation into two photons with energy of 511 keV, and it gives information on the density distribution of a radiopharmaceutical in the body of the object. In this paper we explore the possibility of performing the three gamma photons imaging based on ortho-positronium annihilation, as well as the possibility of positronium mean lifetime imaging with the J-PET tomograph constructed from plastic scintillators. For this purposes simulations of the ortho-positronium formation and its annihilation into three photons were performed taking into account distributions of photons' momenta as predicted by the theory of quantum electrodynamics and the response of the J-PET tomograph. In order to test the proposed ortho-positronium lifetime image reconstruction method, we concentrate on the decay of the ortho-positronium into three photons and applications of radiopharmaceuticals labeled with isotopes emitting a prompt gamma quantum. The proposed method of imaging is based on the determination of hit-times and hit-positions of registered photons which enables the reconstruction of the time and position of the annihilation point as well as the lifetime of the ortho-positronium on an event-by-event basis. We have simulated the production of the positronium in a cylindrical phantom composed of a set of different materials in which the ortho-positronium lifetime varied from 2.0 ns to 3.0 ns, as expected for ortho-positronium created in the human body. The presented reconstruction method for total-body J-PET like detector allows to achieve a mean lifetime resolution of about 40 ps. Recent Positron Annihilation Lifetime Spectroscopy measurements of cancerous and healthy uterine tissues show that this sensitivity may allow to study the morphological changes in cell structures.

arXiv commentaccepted in PMB (http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6560/aafe20)

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Cited by in corpus (20)

• Positronium imaging with the novel multiphoton PET scanner
• Testing CPT symmetry in ortho-positronium decays with positronium annihilation tomography
• Simulating NEMA characteristics of the modular total-body J-PET scanner -- an economic total-body PET from plastic scintillators
• Positronium Physics and Biomedical Applications
• Witnessing Entanglement In Compton Scattering Processes Via Mutually Unbiased Bases
• Entanglement of annihilation photons
• The J-PET detector -- a tool for precision studies of ortho-positronium decays
• Discrete symmetries tested at 10${}^{-4}$ precision using linear polarization of photons from positronium annihilations
• J-PET Framework: Software platform for PET tomography data reconstruction and analysis
• Multi-photon time-of-flight MLEM application for the positronium imaging in J-PET
• Optimisation of the event-based TOF filtered back-projection for online imaging in total-body J-PET
• Synchronisation and calibration of the 24-modules J-PET prototype with 300~mm axial field of view
• J-PET detection modules based on plastic scintillators for performing studies with positron and positronium beams
• Potential for biomedical applications of Positron Annihilation Lifetime Spectroscopy (PALS)
• Low-Dose High-Resolution TOF-PET Using Ionization-activated Multi-State Low-Z Detector Media
• TOF MLEM Adaptation for the Total-Body J-PET with a Realistic Analytical System Response Matrix
• First Positronium Lifetime Imaging using ${}^{52}$Mn and ${}^{55}$Co with a plastic-based PET scanner
• Simulation studies of annihilation-photon's polarisation via Compton scattering with the J-PET tomograph
• Quantifying Quantum Correlations in Annihilation Photon Pairs under Compton Scattering
• Quantum Entanglement Degree, Mean Positronium Lifetime, and the $3\gamma$/$2\gamma$ Annihilation-Rate Ratio as Novel PET Biomarkers for Hypoxia -- Concept, Challenges, and Predictions