Investigation of crystal geometries for fiber coupled gamma imaging intra-operative probes

CsI(Na), CsI(Tl) and NaI(Tl) scintillators coupled through optical fibers were investigated with simulations and measurements to evaluate their potential as gamma imaging intraoperative probes. Three coupling methods were employed: discrete crystals coupled one-to-one with the fibers; discrete crystals coupled through a light diffuser to an unmatched fiber array; and continuous crystals coupled directly to the fiber optic array. The discrete crystals were 4/spl times/4 element arrays ranging in size from 1/spl times/1/spl times/2.5 mm/sup 3/ to 2/spl times/2/spl times/6 mm/sup 3/. CsI(Na) produced the best pulse height and single crystal energy resolution (44% at 140 keV) when coupled through fibers to the photodetector. All elements of the arrays were completely resolved, indicating that the intrinsic spatial resolution will be determined by the crystal size. The spatial resolution for the 12.5 mm /spl phi//spl times/3.5 mm continuous crystals was /spl sim/1.33 mm FWHM. Preliminary imaging measurements faithfully reproduced the activity distributions and compared favorably with simulations.