Medical Positron Imaging with a Dense Drift Space MultiWire Proportional Chamber

A multiplanar positron camera is proposed, made of six MWPC modules, arranged to form the lateral surface of a hexagonal prism. Each 50 x 50 cm(2) module has a single MWPC sandwiched by two 2-cm thick lead glass tube converters. The experimental results for a 15 x 15 cm(2) test module are reported. For 511 keV gamma-rays incident almost perpendicular onto a 1.0-cm thick converter, a detection efficiency of 4.3%, a time resolution of 130 ns (FWHM) and a spatial resolution of 2.8 mm (FWHM) have been measured with a standard Argon-Methane (70-30) mixture at 1.2 atm. The chamber may also be operated in high resolution mode: 1.2-mm (FWHM) spatial resolution has been measured at a 50% lower efficiency. The use of fast delay lines (specific delay 8 ns/cm) for the position read-out ensures a high rate capability. The expected performance of the six-module MWPC camera is discussed and compared with that of a BGO crystal ring camera. The MWPC solution seems very attractive not only for its low cost and simplicity of construction, but also for its fully three-dimensional imaging capability.