We have developed a SPEMT (Single Photon Emission MammoTomography) scanner that is made up of two cameras rotating around the pendulous breast of the prone patient, in Vertical Axis of Rotation (VAoR) geometry. Monte Carlo simulations indicate that the device should be able to detect tumours of 8 mm diameter with a tumour/background uptake ratio of 5:1. The scanner field of view is 41.6 mm height and 147 mm in diameter. Each head is composed of one pixilated NaI(Tl) crystal matrix coupled to three Hamamatsu H8500 64-anodes PMT's read out via resistive networks. A dedicated software has been developed to combine data from different PMT's, thus recovering the dead areas between adjacent tubes. A single head has been fully characterized in stationary configuration both in active and dead areas using a point-like source in order to verify the effectiveness of the readout method in recovering the dead regions. The scanner has been installed at the Nuclear Medicine Division of the University of Pisa for its validation using breast phantoms. The very first tomographic images of a breast phantom show a good agreement with Monte Carlo simulation results.
SPEMT imaging with a dedicated VAoR dual-head camera: preliminary results
BELCARI, NICOLA;
2009-01-01
Abstract
We have developed a SPEMT (Single Photon Emission MammoTomography) scanner that is made up of two cameras rotating around the pendulous breast of the prone patient, in Vertical Axis of Rotation (VAoR) geometry. Monte Carlo simulations indicate that the device should be able to detect tumours of 8 mm diameter with a tumour/background uptake ratio of 5:1. The scanner field of view is 41.6 mm height and 147 mm in diameter. Each head is composed of one pixilated NaI(Tl) crystal matrix coupled to three Hamamatsu H8500 64-anodes PMT's read out via resistive networks. A dedicated software has been developed to combine data from different PMT's, thus recovering the dead areas between adjacent tubes. A single head has been fully characterized in stationary configuration both in active and dead areas using a point-like source in order to verify the effectiveness of the readout method in recovering the dead regions. The scanner has been installed at the Nuclear Medicine Division of the University of Pisa for its validation using breast phantoms. The very first tomographic images of a breast phantom show a good agreement with Monte Carlo simulation results.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
