Imaging by Injection of Accelerated Radioactive Particle Beams

The process of imaging by detection of the annihilation gamma rays generated from positron emitters which have been injected into a patient by a particle accelerator has been studied in detail. The relationships between patient dose and injected activity have been calculated for C-11, N-13, C-15, F-17, and Ne-19 and measured for C-11 and Ne-19 with good agreement with the calculations. The requirements for imaging of the small amounts of activity that can be injected safely have been analyzed in terms of one specific application of the radioactive beam injection technique, that of Bragg peak localization in support of radiotherapy by heavy ions. The characteristics of an existing camera with sufficient sensitivity and spatial accuracy for that task are described. Results of the calculations of radioactive beam flux requirements are shown.