Operation Stabilization and Implementation of Dual Headed Scintimammography Detector in the Detection of Breast Cancer. CLARISSA FREEMAN (Hampton University Hampton, VA 23668) STAM MAJEWSKI (Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News, VA, 23606)

Although the idea of a dual-headed breast-specific scintimammography detector imaging system is not new, it has never been fully developed and implemented in a clinical setting. In Scintimammography, a nuclear medicine technique, radiopharmaceuticals emitting a radiotracer that marks biological processes specific to breast cancer are used in conjunction with a gamma-imaging detector system. The dual headed system is an improvement over both standard mammography and single-headed systems in that its two cameras combined view of the breast allows it to detect lesions in dense breast tissues, near breast implants, post-surgical scars. The goal of this study was to improve and achieve sufficient and crucial operational stability of the system prior to its implementation in the hospital and to get the detector in a clinical setting as soon as possible. The first steps in the process of stabilization were (1) careful calibration of both detector heads and (2) making sure that all internal hardware, cabling, and external components could withstand movements of the gantry. To calibrate the system, we used a sixty-four channel readout to test detector function of four ADC boards along with data acquisition software developed based on Sparrows Corporation's Kmax development package. The system has been successfully calibrated, and the machine will be implemented at the George Washington University under the care of Dr. Rachel F. Brem, Director of the Breast Imaging and Intervention Center.