Positronium imaging with the novel multiphoton PET scanner: https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.08741
Paweł Moskal, Kamil Dulski, Neha Chug, Catalina Curceanu, Eryk Czerwiński, Meysam Dadgar, Jan Gajewski, Aleksander Gajos, Grzegorz Grudzień, Beatrix C. Hiesmayr, Krzysztof Kacprzak, Łukasz Kapłon, Hanieh Karimi, Konrad Klimaszewski, Grzegorz Korcyl, Paweł Kowalski, Tomasz Kozik, Nikodem Krawczyk, Wojciech Krzemień, Ewelina Kubicz, Piotr Małczak, Szymon Niedźwiecki, Monika Pawlik-Niedźwiecka, Michał Pędziwiatr, Lech Raczyński, Juhi Raj, Antoni Ruciński, Sushil Sharma, Shivani, Roman Y. Shopa, Michał Silarski, Magdalena Skurzok, Ewa Ł. Stępień, Monika Szczepanek, Faranak Tayefi, Wojciech Wiślicki
In vivo assessment of cancer and precise location of altered tissues at initial stages of molecular disorders are important diagnostic challenges. Positronium is copiously formed in the free molecular spaces in the patient's body during positron emission tomography (PET). The positronium properties vary according to the size of inter- and intramolecular voids and the concentration of molecules in them such as, e.g., molecular oxygen, O2; therefore, positronium imaging may provide information about disease progression during the initial stages of molecular alterations. Current PET systems do not allow acquisition of positronium images. This study presents a new method that enables positronium imaging by simultaneous registration of annihilation photons and deexcitation photons from pharmaceuticals labeled with radionuclides. The first positronium imaging of a phantom built from cardiac myxoma and adipose tissue is demonstrated. It is anticipated that positronium imaging will substantially enhance the specificity of PET diagnostics.
Comments: 10 pages, 5 figures