Development of Electron Tracking Compton Camera using micro pixel gas chamber for medical imaging

We have developed the Electron Tracking Compton Camera (ETCC) with reconstructing the 3-D tracks of the scattered electron in Compton process for both sub-MeV and MeV gamma rays. By measuring both the directions and energies of not only the recoil gamma ray but also the scattered electron, the direction of the incident gamma ray is determined for each individual photon. Furthermore, a residual measured angle between the recoil electron and scattered gamma ray is quite powerful for the kinematical background rejection. For the 3-D tracking of the electrons, the Micro Time Projection Chamber (μ-TPC) was developed using a new type of the micro pattern gas detector. The ETCC consists of this μ-TPC (10×10×8 cm3) and the 6×6×13 mm3 GSO crystal pixel arrays with a flat panel photo-multiplier surrounding the μ-TPC for detecting recoil gamma rays. The ETCC provided the angular resolution of 6.6° (FWHM) at 364 keV of 131I. A mobile ETCC for medical imaging, which is fabricated in a 1 m cubic box, has been operated since October 2005. Here, we present the imaging results for the line sources and the phantom of human thyroid gland using 364 keV gamma rays of 131I.