First results from a YAP:Ce gamma camera for small animal studies

The YAP (Yttrium Aluminum Peroskite) Camera is a novel gamma camera with intrinsic submillimeter spatial resolution and detection efficiency comparable to a standard Anger camera, At the first stage, it is a miniature gamma camera with a held of view of 4 x 4 cm(2) and is currently utilized for radio tracer studies on small animals, The YAP camera consists of a multicrystal array coupled to a position sensitive photo multiplier tube (Hamamatsu R2486) with a parallel hole collimator. The preliminary results are presented and discussed, in particular the intrinsic characteristics of scintillating array, which are measured, as wed as the position linearity and the spatial resolution with a parallel collimator. Images were obtained from Tc-99m line source and nude Balb C mice, which have been injected with Tc-99m MDP, a bone-seeking agent, The observed images show the importance of the small-field YAP camera in radiopharmaceutical research.