Patent ID: 8502154

Claim:
An imaging system, comprising: a computed tomography (CT) scanner configured to scan an object arranged on a patient pallet; a positron emission tomography (PET) scanner, including a first detector portion, including first detector elements, arranged circumferentially around the patient pallet, the first detector portion having a predetermined axial extent and transaxially subtending less than 360 degrees with respect to a central axis of the scanner; and a second detector portion, including second detector elements, arranged separately from and opposing the first detector portion, wherein the second detector elements are of a different type than the first detector elements, and the second detector portion is configured to be movable radially and circumferentially around the object; a controller configured to cause the CT scanner to scan the object to obtain CT image data of the object; obtain a location of a region of interest obtained using a transaxial image obtained from the CT image data; and automatically cause the second detector portion to be moved at least one of radially and circumferentially based on the identified location of the region of interest; and an acquisition subsystem configured to acquire first event data from the first detector portion, to acquire second event data from the second detector portion, and to transmit the acquired first and second event data to a data processing system for analysis and reconstruction.