A triple-head solid state camera for cardiac single photon emission tomography (SPECT)

Abstract

The CardiusTM-3 (C-3) camera is a triple-head small field-of-view camera dedicated to cardiac SPECT imaging. It is built on Digirad's solid-state detector technology with 6mm x 6mm CsI:Tl crystals. The system demonstrates upright imaging with the patient rotating in a SPECTourTM chair while the gantry keeps stationary during data acquisition. A region of interest (ROI) tool on the persistence scope (p-scope) is used to position the heart at the center of rotation to avoid cardiac-truncation. The tool also provides the count rate in the ROI so the users can determine the acquisition time for different patients to meet the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) guidelines. The intrinsic energy resolution, reconstructed spatial resolution with scatter and NEMA extrinsic planar sensitivity of the solid-state detector were measured and results are reported. C-3 can acquire high dose tomographic studies in 7 minutes at 20 seconds/projection (based on actual patient study). This short acquisition time (compared with conventional Anger style dual and single head systems) not only improves the patient comfort but also reduces patient motion, which in turn improves the image quality. Anthropomorphic phantom and patient studies performed in this work showed that C-3 image quality and diagnostic outcome were equivalent to those from a dual head camera, but the acquisition time could be reduced by 38%. The reduced acquisition time (compared with conventional Anger style dual and single head systems) not only improves the patient comfort but also reduces patient motion, which in turn can improve the image quality.