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Updated: Jun 2, 2026

Sentinel Lymph Node Mapping and Biopsy for Endometrial Cancer at Early Stage with Laparoscopy
Published on: August 19, 2021
Optimization of coded aperture radioscintigraphy for sentinel lymph node mapping
Hirofumi Fujii1, John D Idoine, Sylvain Gioux
1Division of Hematology/Oncology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
Purpose:
Radioscintigraphic imaging during sentinel lymph node (SLN) mapping could potentially improve localization; however, parallel-hole collimators have certain limitations. In this study, we explored the use of coded aperture (CA) collimators.
Procedures:
Equations were derived for the six major dependent variables of CA collimators (i.e., masks) as a function of the ten major independent variables, and an optimized mask was fabricated. After validation, dual-modality CA and near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence SLN mapping were performed in pigs.
Results:
Mask optimization required the judicious balance of competing dependent variables, resulting in sensitivity of 0.35%, XY resolution of 2.0 mm, and Z resolution of 4.2 mm at an 11.5-cm field of view. The findings in pigs suggested that NIR fluorescence imaging and CA radioscintigraphy could be complementary, but present difficult technical challenges.
Conclusions:
This study lays the foundation for using CA collimation for SLN mapping, and also exposes several problems that require further investigation.
