Space Research Centre, Michael Atiyah Building, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK.
Radiological Sciences, Division of Clinical Neuroscience, School of Medical, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2UH, UK.
Sensors (Basel). 2017 Mar 9;17(3):554. doi: 10.3390/s17030554.
The development of low profile gamma-ray detectors has encouraged the production of small field of view (SFOV) hand-held imaging devices for use at the patient bedside and in operating theatres. Early development of these SFOV cameras was focussed on a single modality-gamma ray imaging. Recently, a hybrid system-gamma plus optical imaging-has been developed. This combination of optical and gamma cameras enables high spatial resolution multi-modal imaging, giving a superimposed scintigraphic and optical image. Hybrid imaging offers new possibilities for assisting clinicians and surgeons in localising the site of uptake in procedures such as sentinel node detection. The hybrid camera concept can be extended to a multimodal detector design which can offer stereoscopic images, depth estimation of gamma-emitting sources, and simultaneous gamma and fluorescence imaging. Recent improvements to the hybrid camera have been used to produce dual-modality images in both laboratory simulations and in the clinic. Hybrid imaging of a patient who underwent thyroid scintigraphy is reported. In addition, we present data which shows that the hybrid camera concept can be extended to estimate the position and depth of radionuclide distribution within an object and also report the first combined gamma and Near-Infrared (NIR) fluorescence images.
低轮廓γ射线探测器的发展促使了小视场（SFOV）手持式成像设备的产生，可用于患者床边和手术室。这些 SFOV 相机的早期开发集中于单一模式-γ射线成像。最近，已经开发出一种混合系统-γ射线加光学成像。这种光学和γ射线相机的组合能够实现高空间分辨率的多模态成像，提供叠加的闪烁和光学图像。混合成像为协助临床医生和外科医生在诸如前哨淋巴结检测等程序中定位摄取部位提供了新的可能性。混合相机的概念可以扩展到一种多模态探测器设计，该设计可以提供立体图像、γ发射源的深度估计以及同时的γ和荧光成像。最近对混合相机的改进已用于在实验室模拟和临床中产生双模态图像。报告了一位接受甲状腺闪烁成像的患者的混合成像。此外，我们还提供了数据，表明混合相机的概念可以扩展到估计物体内部放射性核素分布的位置和深度，并报告了第一个联合γ射线和近红外（NIR）荧光图像。
