Positronium imaging with the novel multiphoton PET scanner

• Main Authors: Moskal, Paweł, Dulski, Kamil, Chug, Neha, Curceanu, Catalina, Czerwiński, Eryk, Dadgar, Meysam, Gajewski, Jan, Gajos, Aleksander, Grudzień, Grzegorz, Hiesmayr, Beatrix C, Kacprzak, Krzysztof, Kapłon, Łukasz, Karimi, Hanieh, Klimaszewski, Konrad, Korcyl, Grzegorz, Kowalski, Paweł, Kozik, Tomasz, Krawczyk, Nikodem, Krzemień, Wojciech, Kubicz, Ewelina, Małczak, Piotr, Niedźwiecki, Szymon, Pawlik-Niedźwiecka, Monika, Pędziwiatr, Michał, Raczyński, Lech, Raj, Juhi, Ruciński, Antoni, Sharma, Sushil, Shivani, Shopa, Roman Y, Silarski, Michał, Skurzok, Magdalena, Stępień, Ewa Ł, Szczepanek, Monika, Tayefi, Faranak, Wiślicki, Wojciech
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 16-12-2021
• Subjects: Physics - Biological Physics; Physics - Medical Physics
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2112.08741

Science Advances 7 (2021) eabh4394 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.