TU‐A‐M100J‐01: Quality Assurance and Acceptance Testing of Gamma Camera and SPECT Systems

Abstract

The general purpose gamma camera and those configured for SPECT are the bread‐and‐butter imaging instruments in nuclear medicine, and remains the principle component in systems specifically designed for cardiac SPECT. Routine maintenance, calibration, and quality control of these imaging systems is crucial for providing the nuclear physician or radiologist images of high quality without artifact, the bane of nuclear medicine imaging. Acceptance testing, for the most part, provides baseline measurements that are used as reference data for future comparisons.Performance measurements and quality assurance testing of gamma camera and SPECT have been quite variable. The vendors are very specific about calibration procedures that are done one site, but the quality assurance testing by the customer are left up to the individual laboratories that vary to a large part based on the expertise of the staff. Federal and state radiation safety regulatory agencies purposely do not include any gamma camera quality assurance testing in their regulations. There are now two nuclear medicine accreditation programs, one by the American College of Radiology (ACR) and the other by the Intersocietal Commission for Accreditation of Nuclear Medicine Laboratories (ICANL), that have sought to standardize nuclear medicine imaging and quality assurance procedures performed. Also specified are the qualifications of the personnel who perform and interpret the imaging results.This lecture will provide an overview of the gamma camera and SPECT calibrations, performance measurements, and quality assurance tests, whether they are for acceptance testing or routine quality control. NEMA, ACR and ICANL accreditation program documents, and AAPM Task Group reports will be used as a backdrop for the presentation. A discussion of common image artifacts and how to avoid and correct them will also be included.Educational Objectives:1. Learn the basic gamma camera and SPECT performance measurements and quality assurance test procedures.2. Become familiar with the test procedures and the frequency of testing prescribed by the ACR and ICANL accreditation programs.3. Be able to identify common gamma camera and SPECT image artifacts and how to correct them.