Development of a fully-integrated gamma camera and ultrasound (γ-US) imaging probe

Accurate detection of lesions, such as tumors, is crucial for diagnosis and surgery. Among various medical imaging equipment used for this purpose, nuclear medicine devices can quantitatively image functional and molecular information. However, they cannot obtain anatomical information. On the other hand, ultrasonic probes can provide real-time anatomical information. We previously developed a single-channel integrated γ-US probe that combines an ultrasonic transducer and gamma ray detector. In this study, we extended this design to an array by integrating a gamma camera and 1D ultrasonic array probe, as well as a gamma collimator that also serves as a backing layer (BL) for the ultrasonic array. We validated that the integrated γ-US array probe has little performance degradation compared to individual probes. Finally, we acquired a nuclear medicine-ultrasound (NM-US) hybrid image that can accurately locate the position of radiation source target.