High Resolution, Low Cost Gamma Camera

描述(申请人提供)：γ-射线闪烁相机是成像体内静态和动态放射性同位素分布的首选仪器，可提供医疗诊断和患者管理所需的有关功能、形态和代谢活动的信息。伽马相机被广泛用于心脏活动的调查和肾功能、骨和脑肿瘤、转移性疾病、肺血栓、肝转移和甲状腺病理研究。愤怒相机是伽马相机的一种特殊设计，自1958年发明以来，已经发展了多年。ANG相机使用掺铊的碘化钠闪烁体来吸收入射的伽玛射线(例如来自99mTC的140keV光子)，并使用光电倍增管阵列(PMT)来检测闪烁光。这些相机设计的固有空间分辨率在3-4 mm半高宽范围内。虽然ANGER相机获得的空间分辨率受准直器设计的影响，但这些相机的整体性能、尺寸、重量和成本受到所使用的光电倍增管的强烈影响。特别是，PMT的低量子效率、高成本、易碎性和笨重是此类伽马相机的限制因素。在拟议的工作中，我们计划使用固态光电探测器来评估一种用于心脏成像的紧凑型伽马相机，它具有紧凑的尺寸、灵活的设计和高性能。该项目将建造一台原型相机，并对其性能进行广泛的评估。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The y-ray scintillation camera is the instrument of choice for imaging static and dynamic radioisotope distributions in vivo and provides information about functionality, morphology, and metabolic activity that is critically needed for medical diagnosis and patient management. Gamma cameras are widely used in investigation of cardiac activity and in renal function, bone and brain tumor, metastatic disease, pulmonary emboli, liver metastasis, and thyroid pathology studies. The Anger camera, which is a particular design of gamma camera, has been developed over the years since its invention in 1958. Anger camera uses a thallium doped sodium iodide scintillator to absorb the incoming y-rays (e.g. 140 keV photons from 99mTc), and an array of photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) to detect the scintillation light. The intrinsic spatial resolution of these camera designs falls in the range of 3-4 mm FWHM. While the spatial resolution obtained with the Anger cameras is dominated by the collimator design, the overall performance, size, weight, and cost of these cameras are strongly influenced by the photomultiplier tubes used. In particular, the low quantum efficiency, high cost, fragility, and bulkiness of PMTs are limiting factors in such gamma cameras. In the proposed effort, we plan to evaluate a compact gamma camera for cardiac imaging using solid-state photodetectors, which offer compact size, flexible design and high performance. A prototype camera will be built in this project and its performance will be extensively evaluated.