Methods and systems for utilizing 3D sensors in nuclear medicine

#The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to method and system of imaging and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to method and system of medical imaging.

#Volumetric scans such as SPECT scans, PET scans, CT scans, MRI scans, Ultrasound scans, and the like are commonly used, mostly in the medical industry, to observe the inner parts of objects that would otherwise be unobservable non-destructively. A conventional volumetric scan is intended to produce a volumetric image of a volume of the body.

#Some embodiments of the present invention include a method of scanning at least a portion of a patient with a gamma detector mounted on an arm extending towards the patient. The method comprising:

#Some embodiments of the invention are herein described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings. With specific reference now to the drawings in detail, it is stressed that the particulars shown are by way of example and for purposes of illustrative discussion of embodiments of the invention. In this regard, the description taken with the drawings makes apparent to those skilled in the art how embodiments of the invention may be practiced.

#In the drawings:

#FIG. 1A is a flowchart of a method of scanning at least a portion of a patient according to some embodiments of the invention;

#The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to methods and systems of imaging and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to methods and systems of medical imaging.

#In some embodiments of the invention, the imaging is single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). In typical SPECT imaging, the patient is administered with agents that emit gamma photons and bind preferentially to specific tissues, and the image is acquired by detecting gamma photons emitted from within a region in the body of the patient, and assigning each of the detected photons a direction from which it emerged, or a plurality of directions, each associated with a probability that this is the direction from which the photon emerged. The data on received photons, emerging directions, and associated probabilities may be used for reconstructing an image of the region in the body of the patient.

#Assigning each of the detected photons a probability that it emerged from a specific direction may be accomplished using a collimator having one side facing the imaged body, and another side facing a gamma detector. The collimator may include any structure that limits the directions from which photons may arrive at the gamma detector. For example, a parallel hole collimator is a structure that includes a lot of parallel gamma absorbing partitions that define cells in between them. The cells may have a rectangular cross-section, hexagonal cross-section, circular cross-section, or a cross section of any other shape. A gamma photon that hits one of those partitions is usually absorbed in the partition, so that mainly photons that go in parallel to the partitions, along a cell, reach the detector. This way, each photon that reaches the gamma detector is associated with a high probability to emerge from a location along a line parallel to the collimator's cells, and lower probabilities to emerge from other directions. The specific probabilities may depend on the size of cells, the thickness of the walls, and the absorption coefficient of the wall. The gamma detector may include a plurality of detection cells, e.g., one for every collimator cell, so that the location at which the photon meets the detector may also be known.