Abstract
The Hybrid Compact Gamma Camera (HCGC) is a small field of view (SFOV) portable hybrid gamma-optical camera intended for small organ imaging at the patient bedside. In this study, a thyroid phantom was used to determine the suitability of the HCGC for clinical thyroid imaging through comparison with large field of view (LFOV) system performance.A direct comparison with LFOV contrast performance showed that the lower sensitivity of the HCGC had a detrimental effect on image quality. Despite this, the contrast of HCGC images exceeded those of the LFOV cameras for some image features particularly when a high-resolution pinhole collimator was used.A clinical simulation showed that thyroid morphology was visible in a 5 min integrated image acquisition with an expected dependency on the activity within the thyroid. The first clinical use of the HCGC for imaging thyroid uptake of 123I is also presented.Measurements indicate that the HCGC has promising utility in thyroid imaging, particularly as its small size allows it to be brought into closer proximity with a patient. Future development of the energy response of the HCGC is expected to further improve image detectability.
Highlights
Materials and methodsThe number of small field of view (SFOV) gamma cameras in development or available to clinicians is increasing [1]
A thyroid phantom was used to determine the suitability of an SFOV handheld gamma camera for clinical thyroid imaging through comparison with large field of view (LFOV) system performance
Optimal Contrast to noise ratio (CNR) is achieved with a smoothed centre point image, the ideal level of smoothing will vary based on the image being viewed and in some cases will have a significant effect on spatial resolution and so should not be applied automatically
Summary
The number of small field of view (SFOV) gamma cameras in development or available to clinicians is increasing [1]. Thyroid imaging commonly uses 99mTcpertechnetate (for morphology) or 123I-sodium iodide (for true metabolic imaging) [3] In this communication, a thyroid phantom was used to determine the suitability of an SFOV handheld gamma camera for clinical thyroid imaging through comparison with large field of view (LFOV) system performance. The Picker (Picker Nuclear, Part # 3602, Cleveland, OH) thyroid phantom (Fig. 1) is widely available in nuclear medicine departments and allows direct comparisons to be made with previously published studies This phantom contains a number of structures which simulate features that may be seen in clinical images, including uneven uptake in each lobe of the thyroid and both hot (high activity) and cold (low activity) nodes.
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