E.Cam DUET gamma camera model validation in GATE

Monte Carlo simulations are more and more popular trend in nuclear medicine imaging. They were also widely used in radiotherapy and brachytherapy with use of more general simulation software. GATE (Geant4 Application for Tomographic Emission) is a platform developed on general Monte Carlo code designed for simulating and tracking the passage of particles through matter (Geant4) but is specifically designed for nuclear medicine imaging purposes. The aim of this work was to create and validate a model of specific gamma-camera (E.Cam DUET), used in our department, for further use in image analysis and dosimetry field, with GATE simulation platform. We have modeled in first step a point source in the air in three configurations of gamma camera (without collimator, with low-energy high-resolution (LEHR) collimator and with high-energy (HE collimator)), then we have created a phantom with three spherical sources of different sizes but with the same concentration of the radiopharmaceutical. Simulation results were compared to the measured values of the energy spectrum and images obtained on the detectors, and show a good agreement for the point source experiments and revealed some differences for the phantom studies. This results shows that some additional tests and refinements are required but also allows us to study the image degrading quality factors, such as septal penetration and to work towards eliminating them from the pictures.