Dedicated cardiac PET

1. A detector comprising:

a plurality of scintillation crystals, where each scintillation crystal of the plurality of scintillation crystals has a width, and wherein each scintillation crystal of the plurality of scintillation crystals is placed adjacent to each other so that first surfaces of the plurality of scintillation crystals form a first rectangular surface; and

a reflective coating over the first rectangular surface with an open region grid pattern, wherein each open region forms a space wherein each space has a width equal to the width of a scintillation crystal of the plurality of scintillation crystals; and

a plurality of photodetectors wherein each photodetector of the plurality of photodetectors is placed over a space, wherein the photodetector has a width greater than the width of the space over which the photodetector is placed; and

at least one electronic readout electrically connected to the plurality photodetectors.

2. The detector, as recited in claim 1 , wherein each scintillation crystal of the plurality of scintillation crystals is rectangular prisms.

3. The detector, as recited in claim 2 , wherein each photodetector is a solid state photomultiplier.

4. The detector, as recited in claim 3 , wherein the at least one electronic readout has a time-of-flight time resolution of less than 300 ps when using a LSO or LYSO scintillation crystal.

5. The detector, as recited in 4 , wherein each scintillation crystal of the plurality of scintillation crystals has a length of at least 8 mm.

6. The detector, as recited in claim 5 , wherein each scintillation crystal of the plurality of scintillation crystals has a first photodetector of the plurality of photodetectors and a second photodetector of the plurality of photodetectors.

7. The detector, as recited in claim 1 , wherein the plurality of scintillation crystals are used in a positron emission tomography (PET) scanner, further comprising a processor that receives said emission signals from the at least one electronic readout of the plurality photodetectors and processes said signals into a three dimensional reconstruction.

8. The detector, as recited in claim 1 , wherein each photodetector is a solid state photomultiplier.

9. The detector, as recited in claim 1 , wherein the at least one electronic readout has a time-of-flight time resolution of less than 300 ps when using a LSO or LYSO scintillation crystal.

10. The detector, as recited in 1 , wherein each scintillation crystal of the plurality of scintillation crystals has a length of at least 8 mm.

11. The detector, as recited in claim 1 , wherein each scintillation crystal of the plurality of scintillation crystals has a first photodetector of the plurality of photodetectors and a second photodetector of the plurality of photodetectors.

12. The detector, as recited in claim 11 , further comprising a processor for depth-of-interaction determination using signal amplitude recorded from both the first photodetector and second photodetector.

13. The detector, as recited in claim 1 , wherein each photodetector of the plurality of photodetectors has a width that is equal to the square root of two times with width of the scintillation crystals.

14. The detector, as recited in claim 13 , where each photodetector of the plurality of photodetectors is adjacent to an end of a scintillation crystal.