Imaging performances of the large area intra-operative camera POCI

Summary form only received as follows: Intra-operative gamma imagers developed for small tumor localizations are of first interest for radio guided operative cancer surgery. In this context, the authors previously developed and evaluated a compact high resolution gamma imager POCI (Per Operative Compact Imager). This evaluation prototype has a 24 mm diameter field of view. The successful clinical evaluation of this device in theater block (sentinel node protocol for melanoma and breast cancers staging) led the authors to start the development a second prototype. Essentially, this device offers a larger sensitive area by coupling a 60 mm diameter head module (which associates crystal plate and a high resolution collimator) to a 40 mm diameter intensified position sensitive diode (IPSD). It has been designed in order to improve compactness and exploration efficiency during surgery. Measurements of basic detection parameters such as detection efficiency, spatial resolution, position linearity are reported. Characterization with phantoms are also presented and discussed.