Towards patient imaging with dedicated emission mammotomography

A patient bed was recently developed and subsequent modifications made for 3D, pendant breast imaging with a dedicated emission mammotomography system that incorporates a discretized 16times20 cm ² CZT gamma camera with 2.5 mm pixels. Goals for these experiments include: (1) designing acquisition orbits to minimize effects from complications that arise with patient positioning; (2) determining whether axillary imaging is possible in this configuration; and (3) determining an amount of system tilt to adequately image the breast. Data was initially acquired with Tc-99m-filled anthropomorphic breast and torso phantoms for each of three cases: activity in the breast only; activity in the breast and torso; activity in both, with lead shielding placed on the pallet (to mimic an intended custom-designed lead-lined pallet). Projection data were acquired using both simple and complex 3D orbits. We have found that acquisition orbits can be modified to accommodate the bed´s physical hindrances and still recover most of the volume of interest, while minimizing distortion and artifacts in the reconstructed images. Overall, the results indicate this approach could be a beneficial diagnostic tool to aid in the characterization of lesions