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Medical Physics / Volume 39 / Issue 2 / NUCLEAR MEDICINE PHYSICS

Med. Phys. 39, 581 (2012); http://dx.doi.org/10.1118/1.3673774 (8 pages)

Development of a pixelated GSO gamma camera system with tungsten parallel hole collimator for single photon imaging

S. Yamamoto

Kobe City College of Technology, 8-3 Gakuen-Higashi-machi, Nishi-ku, Kobe 651-2194, Japan

H. Watabe and Y. Kanai

Department of Molecular Imaging in Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka 565-0871, Japan

E. Shimosegawa

Department of Nuclear Medicine and Tracer Kinetics, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka 565-0871, Japan

J. Hatazawa

Department of Molecular Imaging in Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka 565-0871, Japan andDepartment of Nuclear Medicine and Tracer Kinetics, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka 565-0871, Japan

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(Received 12 August 2011; accepted 8 December 2011; revised 6 December 2011; published online 11 January 2012)

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Purpose: In small animal imaging using a single photon emitting radionuclide, a high resolution gamma camera is required. Recently, position sensitive photomultiplier tubes (PSPMTs) with high quantum efficiency have been developed. By combining these with nonhygroscopic scintillators with a relatively low light output, a high resolution gamma camera can become useful for low energy gamma photons. Therefore, the authors developed a gamma camera by combining a pixelated Ce-doped Gd2SiO5 (GSO) block with a high quantum efficiency PSPMT.
Methods: GSO was selected for the scintillator, because it is not hygroscopic and does not contain any natural radioactivity. An array of 1.9 mm × 1.9 mm × 7 mm individual GSO crystal elements was constructed. These GSOs were combined with a 0.1-mm thick reflector to form a 22 × 22 matrix and optically coupled to a high quantum efficiency PSPMT (H8500C-100 MOD8). The GSO gamma camera was encased in a tungsten gamma-ray shield with tungsten pixelated parallel hole collimator, and the basic performance was measured for Co-57 gamma photons (122 keV).
Results: In a two-dimensional position histogram, all pixels were clearly resolved. The energy resolution was ∼15% FWHM. With the 20-mm thick tungsten pixelated collimator, the spatial resolution was 4.4-mm FWHM 40 mm from the collimator surface, and the sensitivity was ∼0.05%. Phantom and small animal images were successfully obtained with our developed gamma camera.
Conclusions: These results confirmed that the developed pixelated GSO gamma camera has potential as an effective instrument for low energy gamma photon imaging.

© 2012 American Association of Physicists in Medicine

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was partially supported by the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, and Culture and the National Institute of Biomedical Innovation. The author would like to thank Mr. Ohta for designing the mechanical part of the system.

Article Outline

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. MATERIALS AND METHODS
    1. GSO pixelated gamma camera
    2. GSO gamma camera system with pixelated collimator
    3. GSO gamma camera system with mechanical positioning and animal bed
    4. Electronics and data acquisition system of GSO gamma camera
    5. Performance evaluation of GSO gamma camera system
      1. Two-dimensional position histogram
      2. Energy resolution
      3. Phantom images
      4. Intrinsic spatial resolution and system spatial resolution with collimators
      5. System sensitivity with collimators
    6. Small animal imaging using GSO gamma camera system
  3. RESULTS
    1. Performance evaluation of GSO gamma camera system
      1. Two-dimensional position histogram
      2. Energy resolution
      3. Phantom images
      4. Intrinsic spatial resolution and system spatial resolution with collimators
      5. System sensitivity with collimators
    2. Small animal imaging using the GSO gamma camera system
  4. DISCUSSION
  5. CONCLUSION
Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1118/1.3673774

KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords

biomedical equipment, cameras, cerium, collimators, gadolinium compounds, gamma-ray apparatus, phantoms, photomultipliers, radioisotope imaging, gamma camera, GSO, parallel hole collimator

PACS

  • 87.57.U-

    Nuclear medicine imaging

  • 07.85.-m

    X- and γ-ray instruments

  • 85.60.Ha

    Photomultipliers; phototubes and photocathodes

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

0094-2405 (print)  

Publisher

$abstract.society.value is a Member of CrossRef American Association of Physicists in Medicine

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Medical Physics is an official science journal of the AAPM and of the COMP/CCPM/IOMP
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Departments of Radiology, Radiation Oncology, Biophysics, Community and Public Health, Medical College of Wisconsin
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