Method of imaging by spect
OwnerAdrianus A. Van Dulmen, Stephan Walrandinventors
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Abstract
The invention relates to a method of imaging a target organ in a patient by SPECT, by using a gamma camera having a gamma detector, and by computer reconstructing the distribution of the radioactivity inside the patient's body from planar images, acquired along at least one linear orbit performed in a transverse direction, the so-called LOrA tomographic method, wherein the gamma detector is a solid-state detector having a transverse width that is smaller than the cross-section of the patient's body. The invention further relates to a combination of said gamma detector and a suitable collimator, and to a gamma camera provided therewith.
Claims10
A method of imaging a target organ in a patient by SPECT, by using a gamma camera having a gamma detector, and by computer reconstructing the distribution of the radioactivity inside the patient's body from planar images, acquired along at least one linear orbit performed in a transverse direction, wherein said gamma detector is provided on its outer surface with a collimator selected from a fan-beam collimator and a rake collimator, said fan-beam collimator having a reduced focal length and focusing to a focal line parallel to the patient's body, and said rake collimator having at least one raised wall extending in the longitudinal direction of the detector, said method being characterized in that the gamma detector is a solid-state detector having a transverse width that is smaller than the cross-section of the patient's body.
Method as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the solid-state detector comprises a plurality of closely-packed detecting elements, preferably CZT crystals.
A combination of a gamma detector and a collimator, to be used in the method of any of the preceding claims, said combination being characterized in that the gamma detector is a solid-state detector having a transverse width that is smaller than the cross-section of the patient's body, and in that the collimator is selected from a fan-beam collimator and a rake collimator, said fan-beam collimator having a reduced focal length and focusing to a focal line parallel to the patient's body, and said rake collimator having at least one raised wall extending in the longitudinal direction of the detector.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.