Scientists Grow Crystals for Russian High-Tech Tomograph

11:37, October 13, 2022

This will increase the accuracy of diagnostics of socially significant diseases

Scientists at Ural Federal University together with JSC Giredmet (a division of Rosatom State Corporation) are working on obtaining new materials, scintillation crystals, which are used in modern tomographs. They plan to create a domestic analogue of the positron emission tomograph, a high-tech and precise diagnostic device in medicine. Studies of prototype crystals are being conducted at UrFU as part of the Priority 2030 project.

The use of scintillation materials in modern medicine is associated with high-tech diagnostic methods such as single-photon and positron emission computed tomography (SPECT and PET). PET is one of the most informative methods in the diagnosis of oncological, neurological and cardiac diseases. Its sensitivity in detecting small oncological neoplasms as small as 0.5 mm is significantly higher compared to other methods of medical imaging. Researchers note that currently all positron emission tomographs working in Russian medical institutions and research institutes are made abroad.

"In 2021, JSC Giredmet grew and pre-certified a prototype domestic sample of lutetium silicate crystal, the main scintillation material used in PET. Its dimensions are superior to foreign analogues," said Vladimir Ivanov, Director of the Ural Federal University Institute of Physics and Technology.

The most important part of PET is the detector unit, which contains up to several tens of thousands of sensitive elements made of scintillation crystals. Each such element converts the energy of a particle flow from the organ under study into a rapid light flash (scintillation). The set of flashes is the basis of the tomographic image. The time of diagnostic PET procedure and the degree of detail (resolution) of the tomogram depend on the scintillator material properties. UrFU scientists have studied a prototype of a PET-tomograph detector element. Its optical properties, composition and kinetics of luminescence, quantum yield value are practically the same as the comparison samples taken from the imported detector.

"UrFU has a modern experimental base and many years of experience in studying the properties of scintillation materials. This made it possible to conduct important studies of scintillation crystals obtained at Giredmet JSC for creation of domestic PET," noted Konstantin Ivanovskikh, Deputy Director for Science and Innovations at M.P. Sazhin Giredmet JSC.

The prospects for global nuclear medicine diagnostics are related to the development of even faster scintillating materials with increased quantum yield.

The news article was translated by UrFU International Marketing Office
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