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The importance of Monte Carlo simulations in modeling detectors for Nuclear Medicine. (English) Zbl 1194.92048

Summary: Nowadays, Monte Carlo techniques are very common for the development of nuclear medicine systems. Simulations can be very helpful for the optimization of SPECT and PET cameras, and for investigating the importance of several physical effects involved in image formation. A simulation study for evaluating various aspects concerning image formation in detectors for nuclear medicine is presented. To this end, the EGSnrc Monte Carlo code has been used for the transport of photons and electrons in any material and for handling various physical phenomena. Some detector systems are simulated, consisting of a parallel-hole collimator and a pixellated scintillator. Various effects are investigated, such as electron transport, fluorescence photons, and collimator septa penetration. The results are evaluated by means of energy spectra, photon fluxes, uniformity of response, signal to noise ratio (SNR) and spatial resolution.

MSC:

92C55 Biomedical imaging and signal processing
92C50 Medical applications (general)
68U20 Simulation (MSC2010)
65C05 Monte Carlo methods
92C05 Biophysics
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