Portable gamma camera for clinical use in nuclear medicine

Pani, R.; Pellegrini, R.; Scopinaro, Francesco; Notaristefani, F. de; Pergola, A.; Vincentis, Giuseppe De; Soluri, A.; Iacopi, Francesca; Grammatico, A; Guerra, A. Del

doi:10.1109/nssmic.1996.591615

Cited by 20 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Up to now CsI(T1) array represents the best compromise between spatial and energy resolution for this application [5]. In fact NaI(T1) planar crystall provides better energy resolution values (<15%) [SI, but a spatial resolution worse than 4 mm.…”

Section: A Description Of the Dedicated Breast Imagingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dedicated gamma camera for single photon emission mammography (SPEM)

Pani

Vincentis

Scopinaro

et al. 1998

IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci.

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Prone scintimammography with Tc-99m SestaMIElI has been proposed as a method of detecting breast cancers in women with dense breasts. Clinical reports have shown that this technique lacks sensitivity for cancer smaller than 1 cm. To overcome some limitations offered by Anger camera on breast imaging was realized a new scintigraphic detector dedicated to SPEM (Single Photon Emission Mammography). This novel small FOV device, shows high spatial resolution performances (<2 mm), but poorer energy resolution values, than Anger camera (1 7% vs. 1 O%, respectively). In this paper we examine the spatial distribution of Compton-to-photopeak ratio in planar scintimammographic images in order to elucidate the causes of lack of scintimammograplhy in visualizing deep or posteriorly located cancers introduced by the scatter fi-om the patient's body. Phantom and clinical studies with several instruments including a general purpose gamma camera, a dedicated camera and a non imaging Germanium detector were performed. The results obtained suggest that scatter from extramammary sources plays an important role in breast imaging with radiotracers. By using gentle breast compression in cranio-caudal view the energy resolution attained with the dedicated camera is adequate to differentiate between photopeak and Compton counts; the Compton-to photopeak mean ratio resulted 4.5 and 6.9 for mild portion and posterior breast respectively .

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Section: A Description Of the Dedicated Breast Imagingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…CsI(T1) needs just 3-4 mm thickness to obtain detection efficiency better 0018-9499/98$10.00 0 1998 IEEE than 60% at 140 keV. Such thickness allows the best energy resolution value for pixellated array [5]. The CsI(T1) scintillating array was specifically designed and produced by Hilger Analytical.…”

Section: A Description Of the Dedicated Breast Imagingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dedicated gamma camera for single photon emission mammography (SPEM)

Pani

Vincentis

Scopinaro

et al. 1998

IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci.

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“…Small multiple camera (SMC) [5] is a multiple camera and consists of 4 PSPMT Hamamatsu R7600-C8 [6] in 2 2 array configuration coupled to a NaI(Tl) pixellated scintillator (1.8 1.8 3 mm pixel) with 3 mm glass window. High scintillation efficiency of the NaI(Tl), combined with the glass window, allowed to balance the effects of the dead zone between the PSPMTs.…”

Section: A Spem Small Multiple Camera and Flat Panel Cameramentioning

confidence: 99%

Custom Breast Phantom for an Accurate Tumor SNR Analysis

Cinti

Pani

Garibaldi³

et al. 2004

IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci.

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The capability of the scintimammography to diagnose subcentimeters sized tumors was increased by the employment of a dedicated gamma camera. The introduction of small field of view camera, based on pixellated scintillation array and position sensitive photomultiplier, allowed to enhance the geometric spatial resolution and contrast of the images due to reduced collimator-tumor distance.The aim of this paper is to investigate the realistic possibility of T1a tumors detection ( 5 mm size) by comparing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) values obtained by different imagers.To this end, we have utilized a self-designed solid breast phantom with different sized hot spots (tumors). The phantom consists of seven disks with different thickness, molded from resin epoxy activated with Co 57 isotope. The overlapped disks represent a pendula breast with about 800 cc volume. Hot spots have not wall. One disk has holes to fit the hot spots representing the different sized lesions. The imagers utilized were: a standard Anger Camera and three different cameras based on scintillator array, CsI(Tl) or NaI(Tl), coupled to position sensitive photomultiplier with different technologies, to make detectors with field of view of 3 and 5 inch. The experimental results are supported by Monte Carlo simulation. It was highlighted how spatial resolution is a predominant element in tumor visibility and how background causes a reduction of the image contrast. All gamma cameras show close results at SNR values less than 10 and a full detectability of 8 mm tumor size. However, the results show the 5 mm tumor size is lower detection limit for all cameras.

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“…Unfortunately, a conventional general purpose gamma camera has only mediocre spatial resolution and poor counting efficiency. To overcome this problem, researchers have made substantial efforts to develop compact, high spatial resolution gamma cameras dedicated to scintimammography (Kim et al 2000, Levin et al 1997, Pani et al 1996, Pieper et al 2001, Williams et al 2000, Wojcik et al 1998. Most of those systems are based on position sensitive photomultiplier tubes of various sizes coupled to pixellated or continuous YAP:Ce, CsI(Na), CsI(Tl) and NaI(Tl) scintillation detectors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Potential of a Compton camera for high performance scintimammography

2004

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In this paper, we present a novel approach to scintimammography that is based on the Compton camera principle. We analyse the performance of our scheme using Monte Carlo simulations. In particular, we evaluate the detection efficiency, spatial resolution and lesion visibility of the system at several gamma photon energies. The simulation results show that the proposed technique achieves an absolute detection efficiency of 0.03 and a full width at half maximum resolution of 3.8 mm at 141 keV photon energy for point sources 2.5 cm deep in a 5 cm thick breast phantom using 5 mm thick silicon detectors. Furthermore, our approach shows good performance in lesion detection, especially at high gamma photon energies, where mechanically collimated systems perform poorly due to severe septal penetration. With total collected counts of 1.35 million, equivalent to a 30 s acquisition time for an activity concentration level of 3.7 kBq ml(-1) (100 nCi cm(-3)) in normal breast tissue, and a tumour-to-background ratio of 8:1, our system can clearly reveal an 8 mm diameter tumour that is located 2.5 cm deep in a 500 ml breast phantom. We also present a simulation-based quantitative performance comparison between the proposed scintimammographic system and the compact collimated scintimammographic system in the task of lesion detection under a clinical imaging situation using a non-prewhitening matched filter observer model. Our comparison demonstrates that for the same imaging time, the two systems have a comparable performance in detecting an 8 mm tumour at 141 keV, with the proposed system performing marginally better. However, the proposed scintimammographic system clearly outperforms the compact collimated counterpart in the detection of a 5 mm tumour. We also investigate the contribution of scatter and direct radiation from adjacent organs. We find that the background contribution of liver to the right breast is 30% at 141 keV, which can be reduced to 4.8% with shielding.

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Portable gamma camera for clinical use in nuclear medicine

Cited by 20 publications

References 11 publications

Dedicated gamma camera for single photon emission mammography (SPEM)

Dedicated gamma camera for single photon emission mammography (SPEM)

Custom Breast Phantom for an Accurate Tumor SNR Analysis

Potential of a Compton camera for high performance scintimammography

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