Monte Carlo simulation and scatter correction of the GE advance PET scanner with SimSET and Geant4

For Monte Carlo simulations to be used as an alternative solution to perform scatter correction, accurate modelling of the scanner as well as speed is paramount. General-purpose Monte Carlo packages (Geant4, EGS, MCNP) allow a detailed description of the scanner but are not efficient at simulating voxel-based geometries (patient images). On the other hand, dedicated codes (SimSET, PETSIM) will perform well for voxel-based objects but will be poor in their capacity of simulating complex geometries such as a PET scanner. The approach adopted in this work was to couple a dedicated code (SimSET) with a general-purpose package (Geant4) to have the efficiency of the former and the capabilities of the latter. The combined SimSET+Geant4 code (SimG4) was assessed on the GE Advance PET scanner and compared to the use of SimSET only. A better description of the resolution and sensitivity of the scanner and of the scatter fraction was obtained with SimG4. The accuracy of scatter correction performed with SimG4 and SimSET was also assessed from data acquired with the 20 cm NEMA phantom. SimG4 was found to outperform SimSET and to give slightly better results than the GE scatter correction methods installed on the Advance scanner (curve fitting and scatter modelling for the 300-650 keV and 375-650 keV energy windows, respectively). In the presence of a hot source close to the edge of the field of view (as found in oxygen scans), the GE curve-fitting method was found to fail whereas SimG4 maintained its performance.