Performance characterization of the PET-CT tomograph at the PET-cyclotron-radiochemistry site of Messina University

Abstract

A PET-cyclotron-radiochemistry plant was built at Messina University Hospital, whose diagnostics section was equipped with a PET-CT scanner composed by a time of flight PET and a 16-slice CT. The present note reports about the results of tomograph's acceptance tests, which had been planned and carried out in order to verify the correspondence of the specific scanner's performances declared by the firm and the fulfillment of Italian law's minimal criteria of acceptability. Acceptance tests gave positive results for all the physical parameters measured. The assessment of CT slice thickness, with regard to the thinner slices of 0.75 and 0.6 mm, required the employment of a manual procedure exploiting a phantom equipped with low inclination ramps. These results allowed us to assess a baseline of performance parameters to be taken as a reference for periodic constance tests.