Gamma camera is used for: September 2007

Ans. C: Both of the above A gamma camera/scintillation camera/ Anger camera is a device used to image gamma radiation emitting radioisotopes, a technique known as scintigraphy. The applications of scintigraphy include early drug development and nuclear medical imaging to view and analyse images of the human body or the distribution of medically injected, inhaled, or ingested radionuclides emitting gamma rays. Scintigraphy is the use of gamma cameras to capture emitted radiation from internal radioisotopes to create twodimensional images. SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) imaging, as used in nuclear cardiac stress testing, is performed using gamma cameras, usually one, two or three detectors or heads, are slowly rotated around the patient's torso. Multiheaded gamma cameras can also be used for Positron emission tomography scanning. Gamma camera PET is markedly inferior to PET imaging with a purpose designed PET scanner, as the scintillator crystal has poor sensitivity for the high-energy annihilation photons, and the detector area is significantly smaller. However, given the low cost of a gamma camera and its additional flexibility compared to a dedicated PET scanner, this technique is useful where the expense and resource implications of a PET scanner cannot be justified.