Compton imaging with liquid xenon and 44SC: recent progress toward 3 gamma imaging

• Published in: Nuclear medicine review. Central & Eastern Europe Vol. 15; no. C; pp. 64 - 67
• Main Authors: Donnard, Jérôme, Chen, Wan-Ting, Cussonneau, Jean-Pierre, Duval, Samuel, Lamblin, Jacob, Lemaire, Olivier, Hadi, Abdul Fattah Mohamad, Le Ray, Patrick, Morteau, Eric, Oger, Tugdual, Lavina, Luca Scotto, Stutzmann, Jean-Sébastien, Thers, Dominique
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Gdansk Wydawnictwo Via Medica 01.01.2012
• Subjects: Medical imaging
• ISSN: 1506-9680; 1644-4345

BACKGROUND: Subatech has initiated research works in view ofqualifying a new medical imaging technique, thanks to the presenceof the Arronax cyclotron, which is located in the outskirts ofNantes, France. This new technique is called 3g imaging. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The main idea is to detect the threeg-rays emitted indirectly or directly by specified radionuclide(Sc44) and reconstruct its position in three-dimension in realtime, with a spatial resolution around one centimeter. To makea g-ray detector with high sensitivity, good spatial resolution andhomogeneous volume, ultra-pure liquid xenon is a good choiceto be selected as a detector media due to its excellent propertiesfor particle detection (liquid, high atomic number, high density,high stopping power). RESULTS: XEMIS (Xenon Medical Imaging System), which isa prototype of high sensitive liquid xenon Compton telescope,is used to demonstrate this 3 g imaging. With an ultra-low noisefront-end electronics operating at liquid xenon temperature(around 100 electrons NEC) and a fast UV sensitive PMT, highspatial resolution in three-dimension and high energy resolutionare achievable. This is particularly important for Compton imaging since all interactions in the medium have to be identified toreconstruct the direction of incident g-ray.A prototype with an active area of 1’’x1’’ is now in test at Subatechand shows promising results with a 511keV source from22Na. All the cryogenic system is fully operational with a highpurification rate and shows a very good stability.