IMAGING SYSTEMS

Nuclear Medicine
 Contents
• Introduction
• Gamma Camera
• PET
• CT Scan
 Introduction
• The early type of device used to create images
of radioactivity distributions within the body,
was the rectilinear scanner. This device
dominated nuclear medicine in the 1950s
• The rectilinear scanner used one or two large
detectors, which scanned the patient in a
rectilinear fashion. Scanning was slow and the
images were poor to say the least.
The Rectilinear Scanner
 Section Imaging
• An old two detector rectilinear scanner which
produced coronal plane images by use of focused
detectors.
• The paper output was produced by a kind of
typewriter, initially black and white, then improved
to color to match the count rate.
Early Images
The Gamma Camera

A gamma camera is a device used to image

gamma radiation emitting radioisotopes, a
technique known as scintigraphy
 The Gamma Camera
• One of the limitations of the rectilinear scanner was
the necessity to acquire information point by point.
In the late 1950s a device was invented by Hal O
Anger in California, which could image many points
simultaneously.

• The Gamma Camera

• The Scintillation
Camera
• The Anger Camera.

Hal Anger 1920-2005

 The Gamma Camera
The main components of a
gamma camera are:
• the sodium iodide crystal
• the collimator
• the photomultiplier tubes
The Gamma Camera
Tc-99m
Radioactive decay

Gamma ray/photon emission

(140KeV)

Gamma camera

Light pulse

Voltage Signal

Image
 The Gamma Camera
• The detector contains a disk or
rectangular shaped crystal of NaI(Tl),
typically 3/8” thick, coupled to an
array of 37 or 61 or 91
photomultiplier tubes.
• The crystal is usually connected to the
PMTs by a Lucite light pipe and optical
grease, which helps the distribution
of light emanating from the crystal.
• Some designs however have the PMTs
bonded directly to the glass window
of the crystal.
The Gamma Camera
 Electronics
• The basic electronics of a gamma
camera takes signals from all the
PMTs and produces three signals,
two of which define the X and Y
coordinate of the detected gamma
ray, and one which defines the
energy of that event (Z).
• These signals can be used to drive
an electronic photographic device,
or can be digitized and stored in a
computer for further display and
analysis.
Photomultiplier array
 Collimators
• Between the patient and the crystal is a
lead collimator, which is basically a piece
of lead with holes passing through it, in
such a way as to only let gamma ray
photons from a certain direction, reach the
crystal.
• The difference between the use of a
collimator in nuclear medicine and a grid
in radiography is that in radiography the
source of radiation is effectively a point
source and will produce an image, even if a
grid is not used. The grid is basically used
to stop scatter and clean up the image.
 Collimators
• The collimator can be made
from lead foil or from cast
lead.
• The collimator stops about
99.9% of the available
photons.
The Gamma Camera
 PET
Positron Emission Tomography
 Positron Emission Tomography
• The concept of emission and
transmission tomography was
introduced by David E. Kuhal and Roy
Edwards in the late 1950s at the
university of Pennsylvania.
• In the 1970s, Tatsuo Ido at the
Brookhaven National laboratory was
David A. Kuhl 1929-
the first to describe the synthesis of
18-F FDG, the most commonly used
PET scanning isotope carrier.
 Positron Emission Tomography
Radionuclide with excess protons
Decay

Positrons

Positron + electron collision

Annihilation reaction generates two 511-keV gamma photons

PET detector ring for localization & imaging

Positron Emission Tomography
Positron Emission Tomography
Computed Tomography Scan
 Computed Tomography Scan
• Mathematical principles of CT
were first developed in 1917 by
Radon
• Proved that an image of an
unknown object could be
produced if one had an infinite
number of projections through the
object

Johann Radon (1887-1956)

 Computed Tomography Scan
• The invention of the CT scan
earned Godfrey Hounsfield of
Britain and Allan Cormack of
the US the Nobel Prize for
Medicine in 1979.
Godfrey Hounsfield 1919-2004

Allan Cormack 1924-1998

 Computed Tomography Scan
Outside view of modern CT
system showing the patient table
and CT scanning aperture
Inside view of modern CT system, the x-ray
tube is on the top at the 1 o'clock position
and the arc-shaped CT detector is on the
bottom at the 7 o'clock position. The frame
holding the x-ray tube and detector rotate
around the patient as the data is gathered.
Computed Tomography Scan