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US 9,173,618 B2Granted
Diagnostic imaging system and method using multiple types of imaging detectors
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorNathan Hermony
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A diagnostic imaging system and method using multiple types of imaging detectors are provided. The imaging system includes a gantry having a rotor and a stator and a pair of gamma detectors coupled to the rotor. The imaging system further includes a gamma detector coupled to the stator. The gamma detector coupled to the stator is different than the pair of gamma detectors coupled to the rotor.
Claims13
An imaging system comprising:
- a gantry having a rotor and a stator;
- of pair of general purpose nuclear medicine (NM) gamma detectors configured to perform NM imaging of a region of interest, the general purpose NM gamma detectors coupled to the rotor;
- an organ specific NM gamma detector configured to perform NM imaging of a portion of the region of interest, the organ specific NM gamma detector pivotably and movably coupled to the stator such that the organ specific NM gamma detector can swing toward and away from the gantry in a sideways direction;
- and
- a mounting structure coupling the organ specific NM gamma detector to the stator and providing movable operation of the organ specific NM gamma detector to dispose the organ specific NM gamma detector between the pair of general purpose NM gamma detectors, wherein the mounting structure is configured to move the organ specific NM gamma detector to a first and second position, such that at the first position the organ specific NM gamma detector obstructs a rotation of the pair of general purpose NM gamma detectors and at a second position the rotation of the pair of general purpose NM gamma detectors is provided.
2 more elements
A method of providing a nuclear medicine imaging system, the method comprising:
- coupling a pair of general purpose nuclear medicine (NM) gamma detectors to a rotor of a gantry;
- and
- using a mounting structure to pivotably and movably couple an organ specific NM gamma detector to a stator of the gantry such that the organ specific NM gamma detector can swing toward and away from the gantry in a sideways direction, the mounting structure configured to provide a movable operation of the organ specific NM gamma detector to dispose the organ specific NM gamma detector between the pair of general purpose NM gamma detectors, wherein the mounting structure is configured to move the organ specific NM gamma detector to a first and second position, such that at the first position the organ specific. NM gamma detector obstructs a rotation of the pair of general purpose NM gamma detectors and at a second position the rotation of the pair of general purpose NM gamma detectors is provided.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.