Copper crystal lens for medical imaging: first results

Dante Eduardo Roa; Robert K. Smither

doi:10.1117/12.430914

28 June 2001 Copper crystal lens for medical imaging: first results

Dante Eduardo Roa, Robert K. Smither

Proceedings Volume 4320, Medical Imaging 2001: Physics of Medical Imaging; (2001) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.430914
Event: Medical Imaging 2001, 2001, San Diego, CA, United States

Abstract

A copper crystal lens designed to focus gamma ray energies of 100 to 200 keV has been assembled at Argonne National Laboratory. In particular, the lens has been optimized to focus the 140.6 keV gamma rays from technetium-99 m typically used in radioactive tracers. This new approach to medical imaging relies on crystal diffraction to focus incoming gamma rays in a manner similar to a simple convex lens focusing visible light. The lens is envisioned to be part of an array of lenses that can be used as a complementary technique to gamma cameras for localized scans of suspected tumor regions in the body. In addition, a 2- lens array can be used to scan a woman's breast in search of tumors with no discomfort to the patient. The incoming gamma rays are diffracted by a set of 828 copper crystal cubes arranged in 13 concentric rings, which focus the gamma rays into a very small area on a well-shielded NaI detector. Experiments performance with technetium-99 m and cobalt 57 radioactive sources indicate that a 6-lens array should be capable of detecting sources with (mu) Ci strength.

Citation Download Citation

Dante Eduardo Roa and Robert K. Smither "Copper crystal lens for medical imaging: first results", Proc. SPIE 4320, Medical Imaging 2001: Physics of Medical Imaging, (28 June 2001); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.430914

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