TURKISH JOURNAL OF ONCOLOGY 2007 , Vol 22 , Num 4
The investigation of lesion detection performances of gamma probe and gamma camera using a lymph nodes model
Bayram DEMİR1, Murat OKUTAN2, Metin HALAÇ3, Mustafa DEMİR3
1İstanbul Üniversitesi, Fen Fakültesi, Fizik Bölümü, İstanbul, Turkey
2İstanbul Üniversitesi, Onkoloji Enstitüsü, Tıbbi Radyofizik Bilim Dalı, İstanbul, Turkey
3İstanbul Üniversitesi, Cerrahpaşa Tıp Fakültesi, Nükleer Tıp Anabilim Dalı, İstanbul, Turkey OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this study is to investigate lesion detection performances of gamma probe and gamma camera.

METHODS
Four cylindrical lesions with 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, and 0.8 cm diameter were placed in a phantom to simulate lymph nodes. The images of phantom placed within water were taken with gamma camera and counts of lesion were taken from mimicking lymph nodes using a gamma probe.

RESULTS
It was determined that lymph node with 0.1 ml volume can be only detected up to 4 cm depth with gamma camera. But, this lesion can be detected up to 7 cm depth when gamma probe is used.

CONCLUSION
Gamma probe is more effective compared to gamma camera with respect to their lesion detection capacities. The smallest lymph node that gamma camera could identify clearly had a 0.1 cm diameter at 4 cm depth whereas gamma probe could identify the same size up to 7 cm depth. Keywords : Gamma camera; gamma probe; sentinel lymph node; Tc-99m