Dual Modality Ultrasound-SPET Detector for Molecular Imaging

We present an innovative compact dual-modality detector, which integrates an ultrasound probe with a scintigrafic γ-camera for molecular imaging in medicine, in order to get both morphological and functional information in a single three-dimensional image. The scintigraphic detector consists of a 2×2 array of a multi-anode PMT Hamamatsu H8500-Mod8 and a 4.0 mm thick continuous LaBr3(Ce) crystal equipped with four segment slant-hole collimators for single photon imaging (SPET). The collimator permits to recover the depth of a lesion by rotating around its vertical axis (z) without the need of rotating the camera around the investigated object. This detector can take advantage from being positioned close to the object and overcome the intrinsic limitations in spatial resolution arising from the geometry of SPET/CT gantry. The aim of this work is to describe preliminary phantom analysis and to provide a 3D US/SPET image.