Publications by authors named "James Hugg"

Improving 511 keV photon detection sensitivity is a common goal for positron emission tomography system designers. One attractive approach to increase sensitivity is recovering events that are normally rejected. The kinematics of Compton scattering can be used to recover the line of response through direction difference angle (DDA).

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Recent progress with Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) radiation sensors grown by the traveling heater method (THM) at Kromek is reported. Large volume monolithic pixelated detectors, 40×40×15 mm have been fabricated with good initial gamma spectroscopy response (< 2.5% energy resolution at 662 keV at room temperature without correction).

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Despite its high sensitivity, the variable specificity of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in breast cancer diagnosis can lead to unnecessary biopsies and over-treatment. Scintimammography (SMM) could potentially supplement MRI to improve the diagnostic specificity. The synergistic combination of MRI and SMM (MRSMM) could result in both high sensitivity from MRI and high specificity from SMM.

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In this study, we investigated the in vivo application of an integrated small-animal magnetic resonance (MR) and gamma-ray imaging system that consists of a semiconductor-based radiation detector, a parallel-hole collimator, and a specialized radiofrequency coil. Gadodiamide and (99m)Tc sestimibi agents were injected simultaneously into a mouse, and simultaneous dynamic contrast-enhanced MR and scintigraphic images of the kidneys were acquired. The time curves of both the MR signal intensity and radioactivity indicate a rapid uptake of the agents followed by a more gradual excretion, consistent with the previously reported literature.

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The present study explored the possibility of nonlinear trends in the relationship between verbal memory and hippocampal function in a series of 33 patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Right and left hippocampal metabolic function was quantified using levels of hippocampal creatine to N-acetylaspartate (Cr/NAA) derived from (1)H magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging. An exploratory neural network analysis (multi-layer perceptron) suggested the possibility of either a quadratic or cubic trend in the relationship between left hippocampal Cr/NAA and verbal retention.

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