NON-CIRCULAR RADIATION TYPE TOMOGRAPHY METHOD

摘要

A radiation imaging system including a rotatable scintillation detector for non-circular emission computed tomography. The radiation imaging system includes a rotatable scintillation detector and a linearly movable detector stand. With the stand stationary, the scintillation detector is capable of circularly orbiting about the longitudinal axis of the patient for emission computed tomography and with the detector stationary the detector stand may be linearly displaced for whole body scanning with the patient aligned parallel to the detector stand path in an orientation orthogonal to the tomographic orientation. The circular rotational motion is combined with the linear translation such that the detector orbits about a section of the patient in a non-circular path. The path assures a minimum distance between the face of the scintillation detector and the boundary of the patient during the entire tomographic orbit to thereby improve resolution of the tomogram.