Patent ID: 7858944
Filing Date: 2010-12-28
Classification: A61B,G01T

Abstract:
1. A dedicated mobile PET imager for imaging the prostate and surrounding organs in a patient comprising: a patient bed for accepting the patient; an open rotating gantry mounted around said patient bed and mobile with respect to said patient bed; a high resolution outside PET imager placed close to the patient's torso; said outside PET imager including two mechanically separate detector heads secured to said rotating gantry above said patient bed and two mechanically separate detector heads secured to said rotating gantry below said patient bed; each of said detectors capable of limited angular rotation with respect to said patient to provide full angular projective sampling of the prostate region; each of said detector heads including a wide field of view having a width of between 20 and 30 centimeters thereby providing a torso-wide field of view; an insertable compact transrectal PET probe placed in the patient in close proximity to the prostate; an electronic sensor positioning system on said probe and on each of said detector heads for spatially co-registering said outside PET imager and said transrectal PET probe to each other and for controlling the absolute and relative positioning of each of said outside detector heads with respect to the patient torso; and a high speed data acquisition system for collecting data simultaneously from said outside PET imager and said transrectal PET probe.