Suitability of nuclear medicine gamma cameras as gamma spectrometers in the event of a radiological emergency

Nuclear medicine gamma cameras are large area NaI(Tl) scintillation detectors that measure both the position and energy of incident gamma rays. A typical, commercial, large field-of-view (LFOV), gamma camera has about 2000 cm3 of useful detector volume with an entrance window of 50×40 cm2 by 1 cm thickness. A 3″×3″ NaI(Tl) detector, by comparison, has 17.4% of the volume and 2.3% of the area of the LFOV gamma camera. A 2002 survey reported 11,700 gamma cameras as being installed in hospitals and clinics in the US. In the event of a radiological emergency, the ability to utilize some of this installed detector capacity would be desirable. This work investigates the feasibility of using the gamma camera as a large area gamma spectrometer for detecting and quantifying isotopes likely to be involved in a radiological emergency caused by dispersion of radioactivity by a so called “dirty bomb.” Monte Carlo modeling was used to analyze detection sensitivity as a function of energy for the camera vs. the 3″×3″ cylinder. For a point source positioned 100 cm from the face of the detector, the ratio of total extrinsic efficiency of the camera to that of the 3″×3″ cylinder varied from 40.3 at 140 keV to 7.3 at 5 MeV. Ratios for extrinsic efficiency of peaks (including the full energy peak, single escape, and double escape peaks) varied from 41.1 at 140 keV to 5.5 at 5 MeV. Modifications that will be required to enable the cameras to function as spectrometers over a wide energy range are described and discussed. Given the large sensitivity advantage, the fact that the camera is shielded on three sides, and that cameras are already present at many locations to where victims of a disaster would be transported, it is desirable that such system capabilities be investigated.