A novel multi-radionuclide imaging method based on mechanical collimated Compton camera

Simultaneous imaging of multiple radionuclides can improve the accuracy of clinical diagnosis and therapy, and has great significance for clinical and molecular applications. However, the photon energies produced by radionuclides cover a broad energy range from a few keV to several MeV, and simultaneously imaging multiple radionuclides in such a broad energy range is a challenge. This study proposes a novel and easy-to-implement multi-radionuclide imaging method based on the mechanical collimated Compton camera (MCCC) to achieve multi-radionuclide imaging in a broad energy range. 18F and 99mTc point source imaging experiments were conducted using MCCC, at a distance of 10 cm from the radioactive source, the radial full width at half maximum of 18F and 99mTc point source imaging results were evaluated to be 7.3 mm and 4.5 mm. In addition, we demonstrated the feasibility of using MCCC to simultaneously imaged 18F and 99mTc in mouse phantom experiments at the heart and bladder sites and the bladder and kidneys sites, the reconstructed high radioactivity area in the 3D imaging results was basically consistent with the set radioactivity distribution. Then, Monte Carlo simulations of other types of radionuclides were performed with reference to phantom experiment at the bladder and kidneys sites. Simulation results shown the promising potential of the proposed method for imaging multiple radionuclides in a broad energy range.