C-SPECT cardiac SPECT/Tct system: First results from a partial section

The key to reaching SPECT's full diagnostic potential lies in optimizing the imaging geometry to maximize the system geometric efficiency (SGE) at a given resolution. The optimal geometry differs for different imaging applications, for different imaging tasks within a single application, and for different patients. The C-SPECT cardiac SPECT/Tct platform unifies innovative sub-systems in a cardiocentric system. These components enable the use of a large curved detector to acquire up to 17 simultaneous minified projections from a small field of view (FOV). C-SPECT's cost-effective modular NaI (Tl) detector relies on pixelation to yield high intrinsic spatial resolution for projection minification, and to eliminate unusable edge areas of the modules. The detector arc is matched by the slit-slat collimator capable of switching between several resolution/sensitivity and FOV modes without disturbing the patient. This supports patient positioning and adaptive imaging operations and optimizes the imaging geometry for a given patient. The high SGE for cardiac imaging is augmented by additional functionality achieved with minimal costs. The multiple simultaneous projections, combined with the small FOV, provide sufficient angular sampling without system motion. This enables dynamic imaging to be performed in the high sensitivity collimator mode. We present preliminary imaging results obtained with a section of the C-SPECT lab-prototype, which includes 3 of the ultimate 14 detector modules and a corresponding section of the collimator arc capable of two resolution/sensitivity/FOV modes. These results, combined with Monte Carlo simulations and analytic predictions, demonstrate the validity and feasibility of the C-SPECT approach to advancing the capabilities of SPECT cardiac imaging.