Characterization of a Molecular Breast Imaging system in Limited Angle Tomography using a dedicated breast phantom

This work reports on the Limited Angle Tomography (LAT) studies of a novel Molecular Breast Imaging (MBI) system with radionuclides, made by two asymmetric SPECT-like detector heads with two different optics. MBI has a central role to play in detecting the small breast tumours, especially for dense breasts, due to its specificity in detecting tumours even in dense breasts. For this purpose, an innovative device has been developed at ISS in Rome, composed of a dual detector setup which combines images from two complementary detectors at the opposite sides of the compressed breast, and that allows spot compression and LAT for a tumour 3-D reconstruction. Our study tries to demonstrate the feasibility of using this novel system in LAT, where a small detector head with pinhole collimator is able to rotate around the breast phantom, to diagnose the small tumours and to improve the sensitivity and efficiency. Detector heads and phantom, LAT setup and first preliminary results, are presented.