The Instrumentation Core has two major functions. The first is to support the acquisition of patient studies on the PENN-PET scanner. This includes maintaining the scanner, performing calibrations necessary for quantitation, and daily quality control. In addition, the instrumentation core is responsible for all aspects of the studies themselves, including patient preparation, position, arterial sampling, scanner operation, data acquisition, image reconstruction, and providing hard copy of the images. The second major function of the core is to develop methods of data processing and data analysis, in order to minimize the errors of quantitation. This includes investigating techniques for scatter correction, randoms and deadtime corrections, and attenuation correction. In addition, the results of regional analysis of the brain can be improved by using anatomical information from MRI studies which are aligned with the PET studies using image registration techniques. The instrumentation core will work closely with the statistical core in the analysis of the data, in order to identify and correct systematic errors which are attributable to the instrument, rather than the patient.
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