Development & evaluation of a cost-effective device for ventilation lung imaging

Ventilation scan imaging is a routine nuclear medicine procedure whose popularity may be rising because apart from being a diagnostic scan, it gives useful information about suitability of inhalation therapy for individual asthmatic or COPD patients. Apart from costly commercial disposable systems produced by several companies, IAEA and BARC have sponsored devices for ventilation scintigraphy. Such devices have a common denominator: production of radio aerosols with submicronic size (MMAD less than 1 micron), for which several methodologies have bee used. We aimed to develop a simple cost-effective system that can be used easily in nuclear medicine centers in the country. Few prototypes have been developed, based on spacer principle and using routine nebulization chambers used in treatment of asthma, that produce radioaerosols with MMAD of 0.78 micron. The size distribution was confined using laser optometry & Handerson Impactor. More than 30 cases have been done using the devise satisfactorily. Advantages and radiation safety aspects of the apparatus shall also be discussed.