A Jaszczak phantom (pronounced "JAY-zak") aka Data Spectrum ECT phantom is an

imaging phantom Imaging phantom, or simply phantom, is a specially designed object that is scanned or imaged in the field of medical imaging to evaluate, analyze, and tune the performance of various imaging devices. A phantom is more readily available and prov ...

used for validating scanner geometry, 3D contrast, uniformity, resolution, attenuation and scatter correction or alignment tasks in

nuclear medicine Nuclear medicine or nucleology is a medical specialty involving the application of radioactive substances in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Nuclear imaging, in a sense, is " radiology done inside out" because it records radiation emi ...

. It is commonly used in academic centers and hospitals to characterize a

SPECT Single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT, or less commonly, SPET) is a nuclear medicine tomographic imaging technique using gamma rays. It is very similar to conventional nuclear medicine planar imaging using a gamma camera (that is, ...

or some gamma camera systems for quality control purposes. It is used for accreditation by clinical and academic facilities for the American College of Radiology. The phantom was developed by Ronald J. Jaszczak of Duke University, and was filed for a patent in 1982. It is a cylinder containing fillable inserts that is often used with a radionuclide such as

Technetium-99m Technetium-99m (99mTc) is a metastable nuclear isomer of technetium-99 (itself an isotope of technetium), symbolized as 99mTc, that is used in tens of millions of medical diagnostic procedures annually, making it the most commonly used medical ra ...

Fluorine-18 Fluorine-18 (18F) is a fluorine radioisotope which is an important source of positrons. It has a mass of 18.0009380(6) u and its half-life is 109.771(20) minutes. It decays by positron emission 96% of the time and electron capture 4% of the time ...

. Although the phantom can be used for acceptance testing, the

National Electrical Manufacturers Association The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) is the largest trade association of electrical equipment manufacturers in the United States. Founded in 1926, it advocates for the industry, and publishes standards for electrical product ...

recommends a 30 million count acquisition and section reconstruction of the phantom be performed quarterly. In 1981 Ronald J. Jaszczak founded Data Spectrum Corporation which manufactures the Jaszczak phantom and several other nuclear imaging tools, such as the Hoffman Brain phantom.

Structure and composition

Jaszczak phantoms consist of a main cylinder or tank made of acrylic plastic with several inserts. The circular phantom comes in two varieties: flanged and flangeless. The latter is recommended by the American College of Radiology for accreditation of

departments. All Jaszczak phantoms have six solid spheres and six sets of 'cold' rods. In flanged models, the sizes of the spheres vary. The number of rods in each set depends on the size of the rod in that set as different models of the phantom have rods of different sizes. In flangeless models, the diameters of the spheres are 9.5, 12.7, 15.9, 19.1, 25.4 and 31.8 mm, while the rod diameters are 4.8, 6.4, 7.9, 9.5, 11.1 and 12.7 mm. Both solid spheres and rod inserts mimic cold lesions in a hot background. Spheres are used to measure the image contrast while the rods are used to investigate the image resolution in SPECT systems.Bailey DL, Humm JL, et al. ''Nuclear Medicine Physics: A Handbook for Teachers and Students.'' 2014. International Atomic Energy Agency publications. . p.563

References

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External links

ACR Accreditation of Nuclear Medicine and PET Imaging Departments
Nuclear medicine Quality control tools Positron emission tomography