Evaluation of a Small Cadmium Zinc Telluride Detector for Scintimammography

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a small semiconduc-tor-based gamma camera that may have applications in scinti-mammography. Methods: A small cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) detector was evaluated. The detector had a field of view of 20 20 cm with detector elements of 2.5 2.5 mm in size. Both short-bore (35 mm) and long-bore (50 mm) collimators, matched to the geometry of the detector elements, were eval-uated. The imaging performance of the CZT detector was com-pared with that of a conventional gamma camera equipped with all-purpose and ultra-high-resolution collimators. The perfor-mance of both systems with respect to breast imaging was evaluated using a water tank containing small glass spheres, 1.8–9.8 mm in diameter. The effects of variations in breast thickness, tumor depth, and tumor-to-background ratio were all simulated in this phantom model. Total counts per image wer