A low-cost phantom for simple routine testing of single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) cameras

A simple sphere test phantom has been developed for routine performance testing of SPECT systems in situations where expensive commercial phantoms may not be available. The phantom was based on a design with six universal syringe hubs set in the frame to support a circular array of six glass blown spheres of different sizes. The frame was then placed into a water-filled CT abdomen phantom and scanned with a triple head camera system (Philips IRIXTM, USA). Comparison was made with a commercially available phantom (Deluxe Jaszczak phantom). Whereas the commercial phantom demonstrates cold spot resolution, an important advantage of the sphere test phantom was that hot spot resolution could be easily measured using almost half (370 MBq) of the activity recommended for use in the commercial phantom. Results showed that the contrast increased non-linearly with sphere volume and radionuclide concentration. The phantom was found to be suitable as an inexpensive option for daily performance tests.