Patent ID: 7573039

Claim:
A method of imaging a portion of a radioactive distribution, the method comprising: selecting an imaging line through the radioactive distribution portion for which an approximation of an integral of radioactivity is to be derived; providing a Compton camera instrument, including a Compton camera having a first detector and a second detector, wherein: the first detector has a plurality of first detector elements distributed across three dimensions, each of the first detector elements being operable to scatter a photon interacting therewith; the second detector has multiple second detector elements operable to detect the scattered photon; the instrument is operable to record incidents in which a photon interacts with first and second detector elements; the instrument being operable to record said incidents in a manner that preserves information enabling identification of the identities or relative positions of the first and second detector elements with which the photon interacted, and the approximate scatter angle of the photon; and there exists, for at least one given Compton camera position and orientation, a set of first and second detector elements that correspond to the imaging line, meaning that for at least one given Compton camera position and orientation, there exists on a plane perpendicular to the selected imaging line, a set of second detector elements numerously and angularly well-distributed around a coplanar first detector element such that segments connecting the first detector element of the set to at least two of the second detector elements of the set would form an angle of almost 180 degrees; selecting a Compton camera relative position, relative orientation, and detector element set that corresponds to the imaging line; implementing said selected Compton camera relative position, relative orientation, and detector element set to collect a data set of incidents of photons emanating from the radioactive distribution and interacting with the elements of the selected detector element set; and deriving from said data set an approximation of a line integral of the radioactivity along the imaging line.