A scanning focus nuclear microscope with multi-pinhole collimation

Microscopic nuclear imaging down to spatial resolutions of a few hundred microns can already be achieved using low-energy gamma emitters (e.g. ¹²⁵I, ∼30 keV) and a basic single micro-pinhole gamma camera. This has been applied to in vivo mouse thyroid imaging, for example. For clinically used radionuclides such as ^99mTc, this approach fails due to penetration of the higher-energy gamma photons through the pinhole edges. To overcome these resolution degradation effects, we propose a new imaging approach: scanning focus nuclear microscopy (SFNM). We assess SFNM using Monte Carlo simulations for clinically used isotopes. SFNM is based on the use of a 2D scanning stage with a focused multi-pinhole collimator containing 42 pinholes with narrow pinhole aperture opening angles to reduce photon penetration. All projections of different positions are used to iteratively reconstruct a three-dimensional image from which synthetic planar images are generated. SFNM imaging was tested using a digital Derenzo resolution phantom and a mouse ankle joint phantom containing ^99mTc (140 keV). The planar images were compared with those obtained using a single-pinhole collimator, either with matched pinhole diameter or with matched sensitivity. The simulation results showed an achievable ^99mTc image resolution of 0.04 mm and detailed ^99mTc bone images of a mouse ankle with SFNM. SFNM has strong advantages over single-pinhole imaging in terms of spatial resolution.