High-Resolution Heterogeneous Digital PET [18F]FDG Brain Phantom based on the BigBrain Atlas

We present the design of a digital phantom that tries to overcome the problems of the current PET digital brain phantoms, particularly for the simulation of simultaneous PET-MRI data sets. We propose a new brain digital brain phantom based on the BigBrain atlas, a free, publicly available tool that provides considerable neuroanatomical insight into the human brain with an ultrahigh-resolution 3D model of a human brain at nearly cellular resolution of 20 micrometers. We used the histology maps, the classified tissue maps and the MRI image of the BigBrain atlas, as well as the Hammersmith atlas and a PET [18F]FDG template as inputs to create an instance of this ultra high-resolution heterogeneous PET-MRI phantom.

Full details of this phantom in Medical Physics: "Technical Note: Ultra high‐resolution radiotracer‐specific digital pet brain phantoms based on the BigBrain atlas", 10.1002/mp.14218.

You can find codes examples for reading the data at https://github.com/mabelzunce/PETBrainPhantoms 

Please cite this paper if you use this phantom in your work:

Belzunce, M.A. and Reader, A.J. (2020), Technical Note: Ultra high‐resolution radiotracer‐specific digital pet brain phantoms based on the BigBrain atlas. Med. Phys., 47: 3356-3362. doi:10.1002/mp.14218