Patent · US Expired

Simultaneous transmission and emission converging tomography

US5338936A · kind A · utility

46Cited by
6References
25Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMar 8, 1993
Grant dateAug 16, 1994
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 8, 2013

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06T2211/432
  • WIPO fieldMedical technology
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

A SPECT system includes three gamma camera heads (22a), (22b), (22c) which are mounted to a gantry (20) for rotation about a subject (12). The subject is injected with a source of emission radiation, which emission radiation is received by the camera heads. Transmission radiation from a transmission radiation source (30) is truncated to pass through a central portion of the subject but not peripheral portions and is received by one of the camera heads (22a) concurrently with the emission data. As the heads and radiation source rotate, the transmitted radiation passes through different parts or none of the peripheral portions at different angular orientations. An ultrasonic range arranger (152) measures an actual periphery of the subject. Attenuation properties of the subject are determined by reconstructing (90") the transmission data using an iterative approximation technique and the measured actual subject periphery. The actual periphery is used in the reconstruction process to reduce artifacts attributable to radiation truncation and the associated incomplete sampling of the peripheral portions. An emission reconstruction processor (112) reconstructs the emission projection data…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.