Usefulness of dual-head coincidence gamma camera with thick NaI crystals for nuclear oncology: comparison with dedicated PET camera and conventional gamma camera with thin NaI crystals.
OBJECTIVE
A comparative study of the images obtained with a dual-head coincidence gamma camera with thick NaI crystals (19 mm), a dedicated PET camera with BGO crystals and a conventional gamma camera with thin NaI crystals (9.5 mm) was conducted to clarify the clinical feasibility of a dual-head coincidence gamma camera with thick NaI crystals.


METHODS
FDG images of 27 patients with malignant tumors were obtained by means of a dual-head coincidence gamma camera with thick NaI crystal and a dedicated PET camera with BGO crystals. The images of bone scintigraphy in 10 cancer patients obtained with the dual-head coincidence gamma camera were compared with those taken by a conventional dual-head gamma camera with thin NaI crystals.


RESULTS
Patient-basis sensitivity in 27 patients with neoplasms and lesion-basis sensitivity of the dual-head coincidence gamma camera and the dedicated PET camera were 74.1% and 85.2% (n.s.), 66.7% and 72.2% (n.s.), respectively. The tumor to background FDG uptake ratio derived from the coincidence gamma camera was significantly lower than that derived from the dedicated PET camera (mean +/- s.d.; 3.48 +/- 3.77 vs. 8.12 +/- 8.92, p < 0.0001), but the tumor to background FDG uptake ratio obtained with both methods correlated well (r = 0.84, p < 0.001). Similar whole body bone scans were obtained with the dual-head coincidence gamma camera and the conventional dual-head gamma camera in all 10 patients.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that the dual-head coincidence gamma camera with thick NaI crystals has potentially high clinical applicability for community hospitals.
Inoue
T
T
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Gunma University School of Medicine, Maebashi, Japan. tomioi@med.gunma-u.ac.jp
Oriuchi
N
N
Koyama
K
K
Ichikawa
A
A
Tomiyoshi
K
K
Sato
N
N
Matsubara
K
K
Suzuki
H
H
Aoki
J
J
Endo
K
K
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D015902:Gamma Cameras / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012974:Sodium Iodide; D013669:Technetium Tc 99m Medronate / Q000031:analogs & derivatives*; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; C024226:technetium Tc 99m hydroxymethylene diphosphonate; D012974:Sodium Iodide; D013669:Technetium Tc 99m Medronate