Dedicated scanner for laboratory investigations on cone-beam CT/SPECT imaging of the breast

We describe the design, realization and basic tests of a prototype Cone-Beam Breast Computed Tomography (CBBCT) scanner, combined with a SPECT head consisting of a compact pinhole gamma camera based on a photon counting CdTe hybrid pixel detector. The instrument features a 40 μm focal spot X-ray tube, a 50 μm pitch flat panel detector and a 1-mm-thick, 55 μm pitch CdTe pixel detector. Preliminary imaging tests of the separate CT and gamma-ray units are presented showing a resolution in CT of 3.2 mm−1 at a radial distance of 50 mm from the rotation axis and that the 5 and 8 mm hot masses (99mTc labeled with a 15:1 activity ratio with respect to the background) can be detected in planar gamma-ray imaging with a contrast-to-noise ratio of about 4.