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Detection of Small Bone Abscesses with a High-Resolution Cadmium Telluride Probe

Veterans Administration Hospital, West Roxbury
Tyco Laboratories, Inc., Waltham, Massachusetts

Correspondence: For reprints contact: D. A. Garcia, Research Dept., Veterans Administration Hospital, 1400 V.F.W. Parkway, West Roxbury, Mass. 02132.

ABSTRACT

A cadmium telluride (CdTe) semiconductor probe was tested under clinical conditions as an external detector of medium-energy gamma rays and its performance was compared with that of the detector system of a rectilinear scanner. The two systems were used to detect acute infectious abscesses in dogs following the administration of ^99mTc-polyphosphate (Tc-PP). The counting efficiency of the CdTe probe when held in contact with the jaw was 50 to 75% of that obtained with a 5-in. NaI(Tl) crystal detector at a 3-in. focal plane distance from its medium-energy, fine-focus collimator (168 hole). The reproducibility of the CdTe probe measurements of normal teeth fell within a range of ±13%. Diagnostically significant increases in Tc-PP uptake were detected in abscessed teeth with both detector systems within 1 to 2 weeks after infection as compared with intraoral radiography, which required 4 weeks f or positive detection. In terms of spatial resolution, the CdTe probe proved to be superior in that it could readily distinguish contiguous normal and infected root tips less than 1 cm apart. In contrast, the NaI detector system was unable to distinguish the normal root tips of an uninfected tooth interposed between those of two adjacent infected teeth.