A preclinical SPECT camera with depth-of-interaction compensation using a focused-cut scintillator

Fares Alhassen; Haris Kudrolli; Bipin Singh; Sangtaek Kim; Youngho Seo; Robert G. Gould; Vivek V. Nagarkar

doi:10.1117/12.878324

16 March 2011 A preclinical SPECT camera with depth-of-interaction compensation using a focused-cut scintillator

Fares Alhassen, Haris Kudrolli, Bipin Singh, Sangtaek Kim, Youngho Seo, Robert G. Gould, Vivek V. Nagarkar

Proceedings Volume 7961, Medical Imaging 2011: Physics of Medical Imaging; 796121 (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.878324
Event: SPIE Medical Imaging, 2011, Lake Buena Vista (Orlando), Florida, United States

Abstract

Preclinical SPECT offers a powerful means to understand the molecular pathways of metabolic activity in animals. SPECT cameras using pinhole collimators offer high resolution that is needed for visualizing small structures in laboratory animals. One of the limitations of pinhole geometries is that increased magnification causes some rays to travel through the scintillator detector at steep angles, introducing parallax errors due to variable depth-of-interaction in the scintillator, especially towards the edges of the detector field of view. These parallax errors ultimately limit the resolution of pinhole preclinical SPECT systems, especially for higher energy isotopes that can easily penetrate through millimeters of scintillator material. A pixellated, focused-cut scintillator, with its pixels laser-cut so that they are collinear with incoming rays, can potentially compensate for these parallax errors and thus open up a new regime of sub-mm preclinical SPECT. We have built a 4-pinhole prototype gamma camera for preclinical SPECT imaging, using an EMCCD camera coupled to a 3 mm thick CsI(Tl) scintillator whose pixels are focused towards each 500 μm-diameter pinhole aperture of the four pinholes. The focused-cut scintillator was fabricated using a laser ablation process that allows for cuts with very high aspect ratios. We present preliminary results from our phantom experiments.

Citation Download Citation

Fares Alhassen, Haris Kudrolli, Bipin Singh, Sangtaek Kim, Youngho Seo, Robert G. Gould, and Vivek V. Nagarkar "A preclinical SPECT camera with depth-of-interaction compensation using a focused-cut scintillator", Proc. SPIE 7961, Medical Imaging 2011: Physics of Medical Imaging, 796121 (16 March 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.878324

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available