Adjustable detector array for a nuclear medicine imaging system
AssigneeGE Precision Healthcare LLC
InventorJean-Paul Bouhnik
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and systems are provided for a medical imaging system having a detector array. In one example, the detector array may include a plurality of adjustable imaging detectors arranged in subsets thereof, each of the plurality of adjustable imaging detectors including a detector unit, each detector unit having a plurality of rows of detector modules, wherein the plurality of adjustable imaging detectors may be arranged on an annular gantry, where an inner surface of the annular gantry may circumscribe a substantially rectangular aperture therethrough, and wherein each subset of the plurality of adjustable imaging detectors may be respectively disposed on a side of the inner surface and may extend within the substantially rectangular aperture.
Claims20
A detector array, comprising:
- a plurality of adjustable imaging detectors arranged in subsets thereof, each of the plurality of adjustable imaging detectors comprising a detector unit, each detector unit having a plurality of rows of detector modules,
- wherein the plurality of adjustable imaging detectors are arranged on an annular gantry, where an inner surface of the annular gantry circumscribes a substantially rectangular aperture therethrough, and
- wherein each subset of the plurality of adjustable imaging detectors is respectively disposed on a side of the inner surface and extends within the substantially rectangular aperture.
A medical imaging system, comprising:
- an annular gantry having an inner surface circumscribing a substantially rectangular aperture;
- a detector array positioned on the annular gantry, the detector array comprising subsets of detector units extending within the substantially rectangular aperture from respective sides of the inner surface, each detector unit comprising a plurality of rows of cadmium zinc telluride modules registered with an exchangeable collimator for receiving incoming radiation from a subject positioned within the substantially rectangular aperture;
- and
- a processing unit configured with instructions in non-transitory memory that when executed cause the processing unit to:
- coordinate the subsets of detector units to move to a first position to receive the incoming radiation from the subject, and
- acquire medical imaging data from the subsets of detector units based on the incoming radiation.
A method for medical imaging, the method comprising:
- positioning a subject within a substantially rectangular aperture of an annular gantry, where each of a plurality of sides of an inner surface of the annular gantry circumscribing the substantially rectangular aperture is respectively configured with a subset of imaging detectors, each of the imaging detectors comprises a detector unit, each detector unit comprises an exchangeable collimator positioned adjacent to three rows of cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) modules, each exchangeable collimator is configured to receive and narrow incoming radiation from an area within the subject for each corresponding CZT module, and each row of CZT modules remains parallel to one of the plurality of sides of the inner surface throughout the medical imaging;
- estimating an outer perimeter of the subject;
- translating the subsets of imaging detectors toward the estimated outer perimeter;
- acquiring nuclear medicine (NM) imaging data based on the incoming radiation;
- and
- diagnosing a medical issue afflicting the area within the subject based on the NM imaging data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.