CdTe XG‐Cam: A new high‐resolution x‐ray and gamma‐ray camera for studies of the pharmacokinetics of radiopharmaceuticals in small animals

Abstract Background The recent emergence of targeted radionuclide therapy has increased the demand for imagers capable of visualizing pharmacokinetics in developing radiopharmaceuticals in the preclinical phase. Some radionuclides emit hard x‐rays and gamma‐rays below 100 keV, in which energy range the performance of conventional NaI scintillators is poor. Multipinhole collimators are also used for small animal imaging with a good spatial resolution but have a limited field of view (FOV). Purpose In this study, a new imager with high sensitivity over a wide FOV in the low‐energy band (100 keV) was developed for the pharmacokinetic study. Methods We developed an x‐ray and gamma‐ray camera for high‐resolution spectroscopy, named “CdTe XG‐Cam,” equipped with a cadmium telluride semiconductor detector and a parallel‐hole collimator using a metal 3D printer. To evaluate the camera‐system performance, phantom measurements with single and dual nuclides (, , and were performed. The performance for in vivo imaging was evaluated using tumor‐bearing mice to which a nuclide ( or administered. Results We simultaneously obtained information on and , which emit emission lines in the low‐energy band with peak energies close to each other (23–26 keV for and 27–31 keV for , and applied an analytical method based on spectral model fitting to determine the individual radioactivities accurately. In the small animal imaging, the distributions of the nuclide in tumors were accurately quantified and time‐activity curves in tumors are obtained. Conclusions The demonstrated capability of our system to perform in vivo imaging suggests that the camera can be used for applications of pharmacokinetics research.