Espectroscopía gamma con LaBr$_{3}$ y LYSO para su aplicación en medicina nuclear

Abstract

Image formation in nuclear medicine is based on the detection of radiation emitted from a small quantity of a radiopharmaceutical administered to patients. This requires high detection efficiency, good spatial resolution and the ability to identify the energy of the incident radiation. These and other properties of detector materials for gamma radiation are reviewed. Standard detector calibration and characterization procedures are described, and the results from gamma spectroscopy measurements for sodium iodide (NaI:Tl), conventional scintillator widely used in nuclear medicine applications, and two other novel scintillation crystals, lanthanum bromide (LaBr$_{3})$ and lutetium-yttrium oxyorthosilicate (LYSO) are presented. Both materials showed a linear energy response from 80 to 1332 keV, and within this energy interval, LaBr$_{3}$ had a superior energy resolution compared to LYSO and NaI:Tl. These and other new materials are expected to replace those used in current detectors for nuclear medicine scanners.