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Imaging Systemslec

The document discusses several medical imaging systems: - Gamma cameras use sodium iodide crystals and photomultiplier tubes to detect gamma rays emitted by radioactive tracers and form 2D images. PET uses similar detection principles to form 3D images showing metabolic activity. - CT scans use X-rays and mathematical reconstruction algorithms developed by Hounsfield and Cormack to produce cross-sectional images, earning them a Nobel Prize. Data is gathered as the X-ray tube and detector rotate around the patient. - Earlier nuclear medicine imaging used rectilinear scanners that slowly scanned detectors over the patient point-by-point to form crude coronal images on paper printouts, before being replaced by

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Jannah Alegre
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10 views

Imaging Systemslec

The document discusses several medical imaging systems: - Gamma cameras use sodium iodide crystals and photomultiplier tubes to detect gamma rays emitted by radioactive tracers and form 2D images. PET uses similar detection principles to form 3D images showing metabolic activity. - CT scans use X-rays and mathematical reconstruction algorithms developed by Hounsfield and Cormack to produce cross-sectional images, earning them a Nobel Prize. Data is gathered as the X-ray tube and detector rotate around the patient. - Earlier nuclear medicine imaging used rectilinear scanners that slowly scanned detectors over the patient point-by-point to form crude coronal images on paper printouts, before being replaced by

Uploaded by

Jannah Alegre
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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IMAGING SYSTEMS

Nuclear Medicine
Contents
• Introduction
• Gamma Camera
• PET
• CT Scan
Introduction
• The early type of device used to create images
of radioactivity distributions within the body,
was the rectilinear scanner. This device
dominated nuclear medicine in the 1950s
• The rectilinear scanner used one or two large
detectors, which scanned the patient in a
rectilinear fashion. Scanning was slow and the
images were poor to say the least.
The Rectilinear Scanner
Section Imaging
• An old two detector rectilinear scanner which
produced coronal plane images by use of focused
detectors.
• The paper output was produced by a kind of
typewriter, initially black and white, then improved
to color to match the count rate.
Early Images
The Gamma Camera

A gamma camera is a device used to image


gamma radiation emitting radioisotopes, a
technique known as scintigraphy
The Gamma Camera
• One of the limitations of the rectilinear scanner was
the necessity to acquire information point by point.
In the late 1950s a device was invented by Hal O
Anger in California, which could image many points
simultaneously.

• The Gamma Camera


• The Scintillation
Camera
• The Anger Camera.

Hal Anger 1920-2005


The Gamma Camera
The main components of a
gamma camera are:
• the sodium iodide crystal
• the collimator
• the photomultiplier tubes
The Gamma Camera
Tc-99m
Radioactive decay

Gamma ray/photon emission


(140KeV)

Gamma camera

Light pulse

Voltage Signal

Image
The Gamma Camera
• The detector contains a disk or
rectangular shaped crystal of NaI(Tl),
typically 3/8” thick, coupled to an
array of 37 or 61 or 91
photomultiplier tubes.
• The crystal is usually connected to the
PMTs by a Lucite light pipe and optical
grease, which helps the distribution
of light emanating from the crystal.
• Some designs however have the PMTs
bonded directly to the glass window
of the crystal.
The Gamma Camera
Electronics
• The basic electronics of a gamma
camera takes signals from all the
PMTs and produces three signals,
two of which define the X and Y
coordinate of the detected gamma
ray, and one which defines the
energy of that event (Z).
• These signals can be used to drive
an electronic photographic device,
or can be digitized and stored in a
computer for further display and
analysis.
Photomultiplier array
Collimators
• Between the patient and the crystal is a
lead collimator, which is basically a piece
of lead with holes passing through it, in
such a way as to only let gamma ray
photons from a certain direction, reach the
crystal.
• The difference between the use of a
collimator in nuclear medicine and a grid
in radiography is that in radiography the
source of radiation is effectively a point
source and will produce an image, even if a
grid is not used. The grid is basically used
to stop scatter and clean up the image.
Collimators
• The collimator can be made
from lead foil or from cast
lead.
• The collimator stops about
99.9% of the available
photons.
The Gamma Camera
PET
Positron Emission Tomography
Positron Emission Tomography
• The concept of emission and
transmission tomography was
introduced by David E. Kuhal and Roy
Edwards in the late 1950s at the
university of Pennsylvania.
• In the 1970s, Tatsuo Ido at the
Brookhaven National laboratory was
David A. Kuhl 1929-
the first to describe the synthesis of
18-F FDG, the most commonly used
PET scanning isotope carrier.
Positron Emission Tomography
Radionuclide with excess protons
Decay

Positrons

Positron + electron collision

Annihilation reaction generates two 511-keV gamma photons

PET detector ring for localization & imaging


Positron Emission Tomography
Positron Emission Tomography
Computed Tomography Scan
Computed Tomography Scan
• Mathematical principles of CT
were first developed in 1917 by
Radon
• Proved that an image of an
unknown object could be
produced if one had an infinite
number of projections through the
object

Johann Radon (1887-1956)


Computed Tomography Scan
• The invention of the CT scan
earned Godfrey Hounsfield of
Britain and Allan Cormack of
the US the Nobel Prize for
Medicine in 1979.
Godfrey Hounsfield 1919-2004

Allan Cormack 1924-1998


Computed Tomography Scan

Inside view of modern CT system, the x-ray


Outside view of modern CT tube is on the top at the 1 o'clock position
system showing the patient table and the arc-shaped CT detector is on the
and CT scanning aperture bottom at the 7 o'clock position. The frame
holding the x-ray tube and detector rotate
around the patient as the data is gathered.
Computed Tomography Scan

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