title: Beta camera low activity tumor imaging.
abstract: A new technique, the beta camera, to complement film autoradiography, with fast quantitative imaging of beta particle-emitting radionuclides has been developed. It consists of a thin plastic scintillator and a light-sensitive microchannel plate detector. The thin tissue sample is mounted on the scintillator. Our first system had a high background and a moderate spatial resolution of 900 microns. We now report an improved system with a photomultiplier tube mounted on the scintillator of the microchannel plate detector. Only events registered by both detectors are accepted. A fast coincidence unit processes the signals, and if a time overlap exists, an event is generated in the beta camera. In the coincidence mode, images with low activity distribution of 201Tl (count rate 1 s-1) in 50 microns-thick slices of a human glioma tumor could be recorded with a spatial resolution of 500 microns.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Physics, Lund University Hospital, Sweden.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ljunggren
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Strand
authors.forename: C P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Ceberg
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sjöholm
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Elmqvist
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Brun
authors.forename: L G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Salford
mesh_terms: D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000378:metabolism; D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D015902:Gamma Cameras; D005910:Glioma / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008961:Models, Structural; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation; D012588:Scintillation Counting / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013794:Thallium Radioisotopes / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D014018:Tissue Distribution
chemical_list: D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D013794:Thallium Radioisotopes