Single Plane Compton Imaging A noval concept for radionuclide imaging

Radionuclide imaging is a well-established and important diagnostic tool. The collected data contain physiological information as opposed to other traditional anatomical imaging techniques like X-ray computed tomography. The Anger Camera remains the primary device for nuclear medical imaging since its invention in 1957 [1]. However, despite the achieved advance in the imaging quality through the years, there are still performance limitations, resulting from the limited detection efficiency, reduced spatial resolution of highly energetic gamma rays, fixed dependency of the spatial resolution and detection efficiency from the used collimator and others. In order to overcome these limitations, the concept of “Single Plane Compton Imaging” (SPCI) has been proposed [2]. This concept, based on the idea of a “Directional Gamma Radiation Detector” [3] - [4] is now being explored experimentally. We will present first experimental results obtained with a GAGG scintillator pixel array read out by a digital silicon photomultiplier array. The detector is operated in our laboratory and exposed to gamma radiation emitted from radioactive sources. Information about the source positions is derived from the energy spectra of coincident events in adjacent scintillator pixels.