Imaging of radionuclide emissions with a low-noise charge-coupled device

Film-based autoradiography provides excellent spatial resolution, but presents some problems with regard to sensitivity, dynamic range, and quantitation. The authors are investigating the adaptation of a cooled charge-coupled device (CCD) for some autoradiographic applications which may alleviate some of the problems encountered with film. The proposed approach uses a scientific-grade CCD which is optically coupled via a lens to scintillator without intermediate amplification. On the basis of the experience with the lens coupling, the performance of the CCD is investigated with the option of a fiber-optic coupling between the scintillator and CCD. The performance attainable by operating the CCD in the charge integration mode is explored experimentally, and computations are presented in order to predict the performance of a modified imaging system operating in the counting pulse-height mode for energy discrimination