Medical gamma cameras in radiological emergency preparedness: determination of calibration factors and MDA for the GE Discovery NM/CT 670 Pro

Abstract

A survey was performed of the available gamma camera models and whole-body counters (WBCs) in Sweden, revealing that there are about 75 gamma cameras and 15 WBCs currently in operation in Sweden. One of the most common gamma camera models (GE Discovery NM/CT 670 Pro), with the collimators removed, was calibrated for 152Eu, 137Cs, 60Co and 40K in three different measurement geometries (supine, close-up sitting and distant sitting) for six different phantom sizes (12–110 kg). Minimum detectable activities (MDAs) were calculated for the gamma camera and a typical WBC, both at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden. An energy window of 30–510 keV was used to calibrate the gamma camera. The calibration factors for this gamma camera for supine and close-up sitting geometry, including all phantom sizes, were 138–208 cps kBq−1 for 152Eu, 63–83 cps kBq−1 for 137Cs and 99–126 cps kBq−1 for 60Co; the MDAs were 50–73 Bq for 152Eu, 125–198 Bq for 137Cs and 83–105 Bq for 60Co. The International Commission on Radiological Protection dose coefficients for members of the public were used to calculate the committed effective doses (CEDs) corresponding to the MDAs, showing that CEDs down to a few μSv can be estimated with this gamma camera for the inhalation of aerosols of absorption type M. The distant sitting geometry was used to enable the estimation of higher contamination levels, and a hypothetical maximum CED was calculated. This was shown to be 256–2000 mSv, depending on the radionuclide and phantom size. However, further investigations are needed into the dead time losses for higher activity levels for the radionuclides studied. The results show that the use of gamma cameras for radiological triage and, in some cases, to estimate the internal activity of relevant radionuclides in radiological and nuclear events, is feasible.