Diploma thesis

Design and optimization of collimators for handheld gamma cameras
Thesis by: Volodymer Cherniy
Advisor: Prof. Nassir Navab
Supervision by: Dr. Benjamin Frisch Dr. Thomas Wendler

Abstract

In nuclear medicine, the choice and configuration of the detector system plays a crucial role in defining the quality of the final image. In particular, the performance of handheld gamma cameras depends on the design of the collimator. The choice of a collimator always represents a compromise between the size of the field of view (FOV), the sensitivity, and the spatial resolution. Sentinel lymph node (sLN) diagnostics can be considered as a case requiring a small field of view (SFOV). Modelling collimators for SFOV imaging may allow to improve lesion detectability, achieve better resolution, and sensitivity. The goal of this work is the development of a framework for collimator optimization, allowing to select the best configuration for each clinical situation.