Performance analysis of a low-cost small animal PET/SPECT scanner

In this work the performance of novel small animal positron/single-photon emission (PET/SPECT) scanner is estimated via Monte Carlo simulation, considering a YAP/LSO phoswich detector. To overcome the differences between PET and SPECT and in order to simplify the design, the system implements most signal processing digitally with programmable devices. The estimated performance of the described setup, expressed in terms of spatial image resolution and sensitivity, is 1.4 mm/0.6% for PET and 2.5 mm/0.025% for SPECT, figures that are comparable with state of the art dedicated scanners.