Experimental evaluation of a tellurium-123m transmission source to determine attenuation maps for SPECT

We have proposed to use tellurium-123m line sources to determine attenuation maps for image reconstruction of technetium-99m radionuclide imaging. To experimentally evaluate the performance of the transmission line source for the fast sequential approach for emission and transmission data acquisition, a prototype tellurium-123m line source is manufactured. The line source has a length of 8 cm with total activity of 36-39 mCi at the time of the study. Phantom and patient studies are conducted to evaluate the performance of the line source. The results of this study demonstrate that the tellurium line can be used to accurately determine attenuation maps for the transmission studies with Tc-99m activity in patient's heart.<
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