Single photon emission mammography (SPEM) : a new scintigraphic technique

99mTc MIBI scan is very specific for breast cancer diagnosis. However the use of conventional Anger caneras is cumbersome because of difficulties in selecting the exact view and comparing with mammography. We have developed a small field camera which is based on the same principles of the YAP camera. The only difference between SPEM and YAP camera is the element of the YAP:Ce multi-crystal array. The spatial resolution of 2 mm is enough to allow comparison between scintigraphic and mammographic images. Actually the smaller breast cancer is T1a which is 0.5 cm sized. Furthermore 2 mm spatual resolution SPEM is far less expensive than the YAP camera with 1 mm resolution.