Application-specific nuclear medical in vivo imaging devices

Abstract

Nuclear medical imaging devices, such as those enabling photon emission imaging (gamma camera, single photon emission computed tomography, or positron emission imaging), that are typically used in today’s clinics are optimized for assessing large portions of the human body, and are classified as whole-body imaging systems. These systems have known limitations for organ imaging, therefore application-specific devices have been designed, constructed and evaluated. These devices, given their compact nature and superior technical characteristics, such as their higher detection sensitivity and spatial resolution for organ imaging compared to whole-body imaging systems, have shown promise for niche applications. Several of these devices have further been integrated with complementary anatomical imaging devices. The objectives of this review article are to (1) provide an overview of such application-specific nuclear imaging devices that were developed over the past two decades (in the twenty-first century), with emphasis on brain, cardiac, breast, and prostate imaging; and (2) discuss the rationale, advantages and challenges associated with the translation of these devices for routine clinical imaging. Finally, a perspective on the future prospects for application-specific devices is provided, which is that sustained effort is required both to overcome design limitations which impact their utility (where these exist) and to collect the data required to define their clinical value.

Characterization and Assessment of Projection Probability Density Function and Enhanced Sampling in Self-Collimation SPECT

“…Although Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) is an established biomedical imaging technique and plays a critical role in clinical and preclinical research applications [ 1 ], [ 2 ], [ 3 ], its spatial resolution and detection sensitivity are far from ideal. For example, a clinical SPECT equipped with a parallel-hole collimator has a nominal imaging resolution of ∼10 mm and sensitivity of ∼0.01%, meaning it is incapable of discovering mm-sized lesions and typically demands a high injection dose (10 – 30 mCi) and a long scan time (10 – 30 min) [ 4 ].…”

High-sensitivity cardiac SPECT system design with collimator-less interspaced mosaic-patterned scintillators

“…In Table 1 , we summarize the performance of representative dedicated cardiac SPECT systems in comparison with conventional general-purpose systems. In general, dedicated cardiac SPECT systems achieve ~0.03–0.1% of sensitivity and ~ 6–10 mm of image resolution with an acquisition time of 4.5 to 10 min ( 5 , 6 , 15 , 27 , 28 ).…”