Influence of a radioisotope from out of the effective field of view in a semiconductor single photon emission computed tomography scanner

Abstract

Discovery NM 530c (CZT SPECT) is a new single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scanner using a cadmium-zinc-telluride (CZT) solid-state semiconductor detector technology. Due to multi-pinhole collimator design of this system, each CZT detector facing different direction and be able to get incidence radioactivity from radioisotopes (RIs) existing outside of effective field of view (EFOV). The purpose of this study is to verify its impact and compare it to a conventional Anger-type SPECT scanner (Discovery NM/CT 670 pro). We used (99m)TcO4(-) as radiation source and set it outside of the EFOV at several different positions (height and angle) and scanned by both the cameras. As a result, CZT SPECT got more influence compared to Anger-type SPECT. The impact was different according to its height. When using other RIs in CZT SPECT room, it is important to confirm the appropriate position against CZT SPECT during scan.