A compact, discrete CsI(Tl) scintillator/Si photodiode gamma camera for breast cancer imaging
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); LBNL Library
Recent clinical evaluations of scintimammography (radionuclide breast imaging) are promising and suggest that this modality may prove a valuable complement to X-ray mammography and traditional breast cancer detection and diagnosis techniques. Scintimammography, however, typically has difficulty revealing tumors that are less than 1 cm in diameter, are located in the medial part of the breast, or are located in the axillary nodes. These shortcomings may in part be due to the use of large, conventional Anger cameras not optimized for breast imaging. In this thesis I present compact single photon camera technology designed specifically for scintimammography which strives to alleviate some of these limitations by allowing better and closer access to sites of possible breast tumors. Specific applications are outlined. The design is modular, thus a camera of the desired size and geometry can be constructed from an array (or arrays) of individual modules and a parallel hole lead collimator for directional information. Each module consists of: (1) an array of 64 discrete, optically-isolated CsI(Tl) scintillator crystals 3 x 3 x 5 mm3 in size, (2) an array of 64 low-noise Si PIN photodiodes matched 1-to-1 to the scintillator crystals, (3) an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) that amplifies the 64 photodiode signals and selects the signal with the largest amplitude, and (4) connectors and hardware for interfacing the module with a motherboard, thereby allowing straightforward computer control of all individual modules within a camera.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23); U.S. Department of Defense
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC03-76SF00098
- OSTI ID:
- 780592
- Report Number(s):
- LBNL--47620
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Potential for SPECT cameras utilizing photodiode readout of scintillator crystals
A discrete scintillation camera module using silicon photodiode readout of CsI(Tl) crystals for breast cancer imaging