Quality control procedures in positron tomography

Abstract

The derivation of physiological parameters in positron tomography relies on accurate calibration of the tomograph. Normally, the calibration relates image pixel count density to the count rate from an external blood counter per unit activity concentration in each device. The quality control of the latter is simple and relies on detector stability assessed by measurement of a standard source of similar geometry to a blood sample. The quality control of the tomographic data depends on (i) detector stability, (ii) uniformity of calibration and normalisation sources and (iii) reproducibility of the attenuation correction procedure. A quality control procedure has been developed for an 8 detector ring (15 transaxial plane) tomograph in which detector response is assessed by acquiring data from retractable transmission ring sources. These are scanned daily and a print out of detector efficiencies is produced as well as changes from a given date. This provides the raw data from which decisions on recalibration or renormalisation are made.