Abstract
Abstract
In plant research, positron emission tomography (PET) is
occasionally employed for physiological studies, offering valuable
insights. However, the generally high cost of PET systems and their
suboptimal design for plant research pose challenges to their
application in this field. To address these issues, we have
developed a new PET system optimized specifically for plant
research.
The PET detector ring was positioned vertically to enable
measurements of plants in their normal upright position. The
developed plant PET system features a transaxial field of view (FOV)
of approximately 12 cm and an axial FOV slightly larger than 9 cm,
allowing for the imaging of relatively small-sized plants. To
facilitate imaging of taller plants, the PET system can expand the
axial FOV by changing the subject height using a lab jack, enabling
the imaging of taller plant species.
The measured spatial resolution at the central FOV was 3.3 mm FWHM,
and the sensitivity was 3.7%. The timing resolution was 6.78 ns
FWHM with a lower energy threshold set to 350 keV. Phantom images
simulating plants were successfully measured using the developed
plant PET system. We conclude that the developed plant PET system
holds promise for effective plant imaging.