Surgeons prefer to use nonimaging gamma probes for intraoperative work instead of conventional, gantry-held, large field-of-view gamma cameras. Unfortunately, the nonimaging gamma probes are of limited assistance in regions of the body with complex three-dimensional anatomy (e.g., head and neck, axilla). This project will develop a low-cost, hand-held gamma camera, which could improve lesion contrast. Modified backprojection algorithms will be applied to achieve nearly real-time imaging with novel, gantry-less hardware architectures. Phase I will build a prototype, hand-held gamma camera with software that integrates gamma ray acquisition data with gantry-less positioning information. Using hot spot phantoms and mototorized positioners to simulate a human operator with no training on the device, the performance of the prototype camera will be compared to conventional planar gamma cameras.
Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: The product promises to improve on the performance of nonimaging probes without significantly increasing cost. This work also should spur further development of deployable intraoperative gamma camera architectures.
