title: Optimization of a parallel hole collimator/CdZnTe gamma-camera architecture for scintimammography.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Small field-of-view CdZnTe (CZT) gamma cameras are increasingly studied for breast lesion detection to complement mammography or ultrasonographic findings. However, in classical collimation configurations, they remain limited by the trade-off between spatial resolution and sensitivity. The HiSens architecture was proposed to overcome these limitations. Using an accurate 3D localization of the interactions inside the detector, this architecture leads to a gain in sensitivity without loss in spatial resolution. In this article, the relevance of the HiSens architecture for planar scintimammography is studied.
  
  
  METHODS
  A detective quantum efficiency (DQE) computation method is developed and used to optimize the dimensioning of a parallel hole collimator dedicated to scintimammography. Based on the DQE curves, the impact of the collimator-to-detector distance is studied. Two algorithms are proposed to combine data acquired with different collimator-to-detector distances.
  
  
  RESULTS
  It is shown that CZT detector virtual pixelization increases system sensitivity by 3.3 while preserving a standard LEHR spatial resolution. The introduction of a gap between the CZT detector and the collimator is useful to modulate the DQE curve shape. The combination of data acquired using different gaps in the image formation process leads to enhanced restoration of the frequency content of the images, resulting in image contrast and spatial resolution improvements.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Acquisition duration or injected activity could be markedly reduced if the HiSens architecture with an appropriate collimator-detector gap were used.
authors.affiliation: CEA-LETI-MINATEC, F38054 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: Charlotte
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Robert
authors.forename: Guillaume
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Montémont
authors.forename: Véronique
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Rebuffel
authors.forename: Loïck
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Verger
authors.forename: Irène
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Buvat
mesh_terms: D002104:Cadmium; D015902:Gamma Cameras; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008327:Mammography / Q000295:instrumentation*; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013691:Tellurium; D047368:Tumor Burden; D015032:Zinc
chemical_list: C474490:CdZnTe; D002104:Cadmium; D015032:Zinc; D013691:Tellurium