Mercuric Iodide Intraoperative Gamma-Ray Camera

We will develop a prototype intraoperative gamma-ray camera (IOGC) for imaging gamma-emitting radioactive tracers incorporated into brain tumors in the intraoperative surgical environment. This instrument will be capable of dynamically identifying tumor cells for removal from patients with cerebral neoplasm without removing excessive normal tissue. The camera will be used in the surgical scenario where the patient is injected with a tumor seeking radiopharmaceutical before surgery, the surgical procedure to remove the tumor mass is performed, and the site is then imaged using the IOGC probe to locate residual subclinical tumor cells. The IOGC would be employed for radioisotopes such as 99mTc, 2O1Tl, and 123I which have low energy X- and gamma-rays. The intraoperative gamma-ray camera will use a small and light-weight detachable head comprising a mercuric iodide (HgI2) detector array in order to ensure compact design and high signal-to-noise ratio. During the first phase of the work, a study will be conducted to determine the optimal construction of the detector probe and the resulting design will be incorporated into a small (19 element) prototype array which will be fabricated and evaluated.