A Dual-Modality Ultrasound-Scintigraphic Detector for Molecular Imaging in Medicine

Functional and anatomic information are often considered together when physician wants to obtain a more reliable diagnosis in medicine. The image quality and quantitative accuracy of radionuclide imaging, however, often lack anatomic cues that are needed to localize or stage the disease and typically has poorer statistical and spatial characteristics than anatomic imaging methods, such as MRI, X-rays or ultrasounds one. Among the techniques able to provide anatomical information, ultrasounds (US) are a cost-effective and reliable method, and the US-probes represent an easy ways to assemble a portable devices. These issues have motivated the development of a new research approach that could combines functional data from compact gamma cameras with structural one from US equipments. The ECORAD collaboration aims to develop a dual compact system for imaging in Medicine able to integrate an US-probe within a compact gamma camera. It will be able to acquire ultrasound and scintigraphic images and to get both morphological and functional information on the same device. A volumetric image containing the fused information will be provided to the user.