MULTIPLE LAYER POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY CAMERA

摘要

A position emission tomography camera having a patient area (18) with a plurality of fixed detector rings (14, 14a) positioned side by side around the patient area to detect radiation. Each ring contains a plurality of scintillation detectors directed toward the patient area for defining a plane slice. Each ring includes multiple layers of scintillation detectors in which the detectors in one of the layers is offset relative to the detectors in the other layers in a ring for increasing the sampling of detected radiation. Photo multipliers for converting detected radiation into electrical pulses are positioned adjacent each ring but offset from the plane of each ring and are directed perpendicularly to the plane of the adjacent ring. The depth of each ring is sufficient to stop gamma radiation but the depth of each layer is less whereby image resolution is improved.