Patent ID: 6140649
Filing Date: 2000-10-31
Classification: G01T

Abstract:
A method of acquiring view data of a patient produced by a medical imaging system from emission of photons at a first energy level emitted by a radiopharmaceutical tracer, the medical imaging system including a camera which has a two dimensional array of radiation detectors and which includes a transmission radiation source that emits photons at a second energy level, wherein an event occurs when a given photon strikes one of the radiation detectors; the method comprises steps of:inhibiting photon emission from the transmission radiation source for a first period of time;activating the transmission radiation source to emit photons during a second period of time;categorizing an event, which occurs during the first period of time, as a crosstalk event when the given photon has an energy level in a first range which is a function of the second energy level;categorizing an event, which occurs during the second period of time, as a transmission event when the given photon has an energy level in a second range which is a function of the second energy level;categorizing an event as an emission event when the given photon has an energy level in a third range which is a function of the first energy level;storing information about each emission event, crosstalk event and transmission event in a separate memory area for each type of event; andproducing a corrected transmission image by combining information about transmission events and crosstalk events.