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Feasibility study for positron emission mammography
Author(s) -
Thompson C. J.,
Murthy K.,
Weinberg I. N.,
Mako F.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
medical physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.473
H-Index - 180
eISSN - 2473-4209
pISSN - 0094-2405
DOI - 10.1118/1.597169
Subject(s) - imaging phantom , mammography , positron , scanner , monte carlo method , detector , physics , detective quantum efficiency , nuclear medicine , positron emission tomography , optics , image resolution , dosimetry , computer science , image quality , breast cancer , nuclear physics , medicine , mathematics , artificial intelligence , electron , statistics , cancer , image (mathematics)
A feasibility study is presented for a small, low‐cost, dedicated device for positron emission mammography. Two detector arrays above and below the breast would be placed in a conventional mammography unit. These detectors are sensitive to positron annihilation radiation, and are connected to a coincidence circuit and a multiplane image memory. Images of the distribution of positron‐emitting isotope are obtained in real time by incrementing the memory location at the intersection of each line of response. Monte Carlo simulations of a breast phantom are compared with actual scans of this phantom in a conventional PET scanner. The simulations and experimental data are used to predict the performance of the proposed system. Spatial resolution experiments using very narrow bismuth germanate BGO crystals suggest that spatial resolutions of about 2 mm should be possible. The efficiency of the proposed device is about ten times that of a conventional brain scanner. The scatter fraction is greater, but the scattered radiation has a very flat distribution. By designing the device to fit in an existing mammography unit, conventional mammograms can be taken after the injection of the radio‐pharmaceutical allowing exact registration of the emission and conventional mammographic images.