Simulation study of the effect of the geometrical parameters on the performance of a beta probe

Abstract An intraoperative probe is a small tool used to identify, locate, and dissect pathological lesions during surgery and confirm their removal. The most common type of probe is the gamma probe, which detects gamma-emitting sources. Despite the successful use of gamma probes in clinics, their application can be limited when the background radiation from healthy tissue nearby or the injection site is high. In these cases, the use of beta probes that detect beta-emitting radiotracers would be beneficial. The shorter range of beta radiation compared to gamma radiation would result in improved detection efficacy when background radiation is significant. In this simulation study, we examined how geometrical parameters may impact the performance of a beta probe. Our results showed that the source depth inside the phantom and detector size affected the performance of the beta probe. We also proposed and evaluated two designs of beta probes capable of adjusting their performance.