System and method for determining internal radioactivity and absorbed dose estimates
AssigneeCity of Hope
InventorsAn Liu, Lawrence E. Williams, Andrew Raubitschek
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method determines internal radioactivity and absorbed dose estimates of a patient more accurately and with greater ease. Internal radioactivity is determined by the CAMI (CT scan Assisted Matrix Inversion) system and method which uses uptake information from the gamma camera images and anatomic data from CT (Computerized Tomography) scans. Absorbed dose estimates are obtained by the MAVSK (Monte Carlo Assisted Voxel Source Kernel) system and method which uses a MCNP (Monte Carlo program for electron and photon transport) to simulate a voxel source kernel for .sup.90 Y analogous to a point source function.
Claims9
A method of determining radioactivity uptake of a patient, comprising the steps of:
- a) imaging a patient to obtain a first plurality of tomographic images;
- b) circumscribing at least one region of interest on at least one of said first plurality of tomographic images to obtain an image volume;
- c) imaging said patient to obtain at least one planar image corresponding to a radioactivity distribution field within said patient;
- d) fusing said image volume with said at least one planar image;
- e) obtaining a plurality of linear radioactivity densities each corresponding to an image point on said at least one planar image within said image volume;
- and
- f) multiplying said plurality of linear radioactivity densities by said image volume to obtain total radioactivity of said image volume.
An apparatus for determining internal radioactivity and/or absorbed dose estimates, comprising:
- a) means for imaging a patient to obtain a first plurality of tomographic images;
- b) means for circumscribing at least one region of interest on at least one of said first plurality of tomographic images to obtain an image volume;
- c) means for imaging said patient to obtain at least one planar image corresponding to a radioactivity distribution field within said patient;
- d) means for fusing said image volume with said at least one planar image;
- e) means for obtaining a plurality of linear radioactivity densities each corresponding to an image point on said at least one planar image within said image volume;
- and
- f) means for multiplying said plurality of linear radioactivity densities by said image volume to obtain total radioactivity of said image volume.
A computer program product having a computer readable medium having computer readable code recorded thereon for determining internal radioactivity and/or absorbed dose estimates, said computer readable code comprising:
- a) means for obtaining a first plurality of tomographic images of a patient;
- b) means for circumscribing at least one region of interest on at least one of said first plurality of tomographic images to obtain an image volume;
- c) means for obtaining at least one planar image of said patient corresponding to a radioactivity distribution field within said patient;
- d) means for fusing said image volume with said at least one planar image;
- e) means for obtaining a plurality of linear radioactivity densities each corresponding to an image point on said at least one planar image within said image volume;
- and
- f) means for multiplying said plurality of linear radioactivity densities by said image volume to obtain total radioactivity of said image volume.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.