Compact large FoV gamma camera for breast molecular imaging

The very low sensitivity of scintimammography for tumours under 1 cm in diameter, with current nuclear medicine cameras, is the major limitation in recommending this test modality for screening purposes. To improve this diagnostic technique,a new concept of scintillation gamma camera, which fits the best requirements for functional breast imaging has been developed under "Integrated Mammographic Imaging" (IMI) project. This camera consists of a large detection head (6" x 7"),very compact sized and with light weight to be easily positioned in the same X-ray geometry. The detection head consists of matrix of 42 photodetector Hamamatsu 1 in(2) square H8520-C12 PSPMTs, which are closely packed and coupled to a NaI(Tl) scintillating array, with individual crystal pixel 2 x 2 x 6 mm(3) size. Large FoV camera shows a very good pixel identification in the detection dead zones between tubes allowing an accurate LUT correction of the final image reconstruction. Electronic read-out was especially designed to optimize the intrinsic spatial resolution and camera compactness. With respect to Anger camera, the overall spatial resolution is improved up to 40% while the overall energy resolution values is similar to 16% at 140keV. Large FoV dedicated camera was characterized and tested by phantom studies; and clinical trials are currently performed. For all patients, compression views have been acquiring for both breasts in craniocaudal projections, and are compared with standard gamma camera images. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.