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Quantitative Measurement of Radioactivity in Internal Organs by Area Scanning

Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Correspondence: For reprints contact: A. C. Morris, Jr., Box 117, Oak Ridge, Tenn. 37830.

ABSTRACT

Conventional area scans display a representation of the radionuclide present in a patient. A number of methods, such as computer processing and color recording, have been used to increase contrast and diagnostic interpretability. These scans and manipulative processes do not quantitate the radionuclide present. Our work has been directed toward finding a method for calculating organ-uptake values simultaneously with a scanning procedure. More than 850 experimental scans have been made on various radioactive sources and phantoms to obtain the basic information needed. The method developed makes use of two scan records produced from above and below the patient; then, for each scan, the counts or dots are summed over the selected organ.

If the summing area for each scan record is properly chosen around the perimeter of the organ, the number of scan counts depends on the source depth but not on its size. Calculations on the summed counts from both opposed scans provide an accurate uptake measurement, independent of both source depth and configuration. High accuracies have been consistently maintained when this method was tested with radioactive plastic organs in a water-filled human REMAB phantom.