Descripción del proyecto
THE FINAL GOAL OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO CONTINUE AND CONSOLIDATE THE RESEARCH ACTIVITIES OF A YOUNG GROUP, THE GRUPO DE FISICA EN LA IMAGEN MEDICA (GFIM), WHICH WAS ESTABLISHED THROUGH A PROJECT GRANT FOR YOUNG INVESTIGATORS AT THE INSTITUTO DE FISICA CORPUSCULAR (IFIC, VALENCIA), THE GFIM IS AN INTERDISCIPLINARY GROUP COMPOSED BY PHYSICISTS, ENGINEERS, AND ONE COMPUTER SCIENTIST, AND IT IS INVOLVED IN VARIOUS INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS WHERE ALSO MEDICAL DOCTORS, BIOLOGISTS, AND BIOCHEMISTS PARTICIPATE, THE FRAME OF THE PROPOSAL IS EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY (ET); ET ENCOMPASSES VARIOUS MEDICAL IMAGING TECHNIQUES, IN THIS PROJECT, WE WILL FOCUS ON POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY (PET), MAINLY USED IN DIAGNOSTICS, AND IN-BEAM SINGLE GAMMA COMPTON IMAGING, A NOVEL IMAGING TECHNIQUE PROPOSED TO MONITOR ON-LINE THE DOSE DELIVERY DURING HADRONTHERAPY, OUR PROJECT WILL BE MOSTLY DEVOTED TO SOFTWARE ASPECTS OF ET, ALTHOUGH INSTRUMENTATION IS ALSO ENCLOSED, AS REGARDS SOFTWARE, THE MAIN GOAL IS TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF RECONSTRUCTED IMAGES, NOT ONLY FOR IMPROVING DIAGNOSIS BUT ALSO TO ALLOW QUANTIFICATION, TO ACHIEVE THIS GOAL, THE TARGET ARE THOSE PHYSICAL PHENOMENA, INTRINSIC TO RADIATION EMISSION, DETECTION AND IMAGE FORMATION, WHICH CAN DEGRADE IMAGE QUALITY AND HINDER QUANTIFICATION, OUR FIRST OBJECTIVE IS THUS TO STUDY AND MODEL IMAGE DEGRADATION PHENOMENA SUCH AS COMPTON SCATTER, CRYSTAL PENETRATION, PATIENT MOTION, ACCIDENTAL COINCIDENCES, AND MISSING DATA DUE TO OPEN GEOMETRIES, THE NEXT STEP IS TO DEVELOP ALGORITHMS AND TECHNIQUES TO REDUCE THE DEGRADATION EFFECTS ON THE IMAGE OF THESE PHENOMENA, FOR THIS PURPOSE, IMAGE RECONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES, BASED ON A STATISTICAL FRAMEWORK AND ITERATIVE ALGORITHMS WILL BE USED, IN COMBINATION WITH DEDICATED SYSTEM RESPONSE MODELS WHICH SHOULD INCLUDE A DESCRIPTION OF MOST RELEVANT DEGRADATION PHENOMENA, AN INNOVATIVE ASPECT IS OUR MULTIDIMENSIONAL APPROACH FOR THE RECONSTRUCTION PROBLEM, AIMED AT EXPLOITING ALL INFORMATION CONTAINED WITHIN THE DATA, AS WELL AS THE CHARACTERISTICS OF NOVEL IMAGING PROTOTYPES, A COMMON THREAD ALONG THE FORMER AND THE NEW PROJECT IS COMPTON SCATTER, VIEWED FROM VARIOUS PERSPECTIVES: AS A SOURCE OF IMAGE DEGRADATION (OBJECT SCATTER), THE BASIC INTERACTION ON WHICH COMPTON DETECTORS RELY, AND A POTENTIAL SOURCE TO IMPROVE SYSTEM SENSITIVITY (INTER-CRYSTAL SCATTER), WE WILL INVESTIGATE THE INTERCONNECTION AMONG IMAGE DEGRADATION PHENOMENA, IN THE SEARCH OF MORE ACCURATE MODELS TO COMPENSATE FOR DEGRADATION EFFECTS, SINCE THESE EFFECTS WILL DEPEND, IN THE END, ON THE SUBJECT AND ON THE IMAGING DEVICE, OUR MODELS WILL BE ADAPTED TO THE PARTICULAR IMAGING DEVICES CONSIDERED AND, WHEN POSSIBLE, TO THE OBJECTS TO BE IMAGED, VARIOUS RESEARCH ET PROTOTYPES AND PET SCANNERS ARE INVOLVED WITHIN THIS PROJECT THROUGH EXISTING COLLABORATIONS AND INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS, SOME OF THEM ARE VERY UNCONVENTIONAL SYSTEMS WHICH OFFER NEW SCENARIOS AND CHALLENGES FOR IMAGE RECONSTRUCTION, HOWEVER, NONE OF THESE IMAGING DEVICES ARE LOCATED IN OUR INSTITUTE, THEREFORE, OUR LAST OBJECTIVE IS TO CONSTRUCT A BENCH-TOP PET DEVICE FOR RESEARCH AT IFIC, THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE OBJECTIVES WILL RESULT IN THE IMPROVED QUALITY OF RECONSTRUCTED IMAGES AND OF THEIR INFORMATION; BOTH FACTS, IN TURN, SHOULD TRANSLATE ON THE ONE HAND INTO BETTER DIAGNOSIS; ON THE OTHER HAND IN A MORE ACCURATE INTERPRETATION OF THE IMAGE CONTENTS FOR APPLICATIONS IN BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH AND MONITORING OF HADRONTHERAPY,