Description of Invention:
Development of a unique system that can operate as both a scintillation camera and a positron emission tomography (PET) scanner offers to significantly improve the visualization of physiological processes in the human body and other biological systems. Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging -- which utilizes one or more scintillation cameras rotated around a subject -- is used in nuclear medicine worldwide. More recently, an alternative to SPECT imaging has involved the development and use of positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, in which the subject is surrounded by rings of detectors that detect the emission of a pair of annihilation photons from positron emitting racers in the body. SPECT and PET imaging, however, require different instrumentation: scintillation cameras used for SPECT imaging are generally regarded as too insensitive for effective PET imaging, while PET scanners cannot effectively image single photon emitting tracers used for SPECT. This newly developed system attempts to bridge this gap by using two uncollimated, tiltable scintillation cameras in time coincidence, rotated about the target to acquire PET image data. Tilting the cameras in the prescribed manner allows a tradeoff between axial field-of-view and photon path length through the scintillator that maximizes 2D coincidence sensitivity compared to cameras in full opposition. The resulting system exhibits the high spatial resolution expected of a scintillation camera at 511 keV but with substantially higher coincidence sensitivity.
Inventors:
MV Green (CC) J Seidel (CC) WR Gandler (CIT)
Patent Status:
DHHS Reference No. E-088-1994/1 --
U.S. Patent 5,591,977 issued 07 Jan 1997
For Additional Information Please Contact: Michael Shmilovich J.D.
NIH Office of Technology Transfer
6011 Executive Blvd, Suite 325
Rockville, MD 20852-3804
Phone: (301) 435-5019
Email: shmilovm@mail.nih.gov
Fax: (301) 402-0220
