The United States of America as Represented by the Department of Health

Horace E Cascio

Walter S Friauf

Rodney A Brooks

Elijah C Walker

Victor Sank

Victor J Sank

A positron emission tomographic scanner is provided with cross-slice event data handling capability by adding only a coincidence detector and register in common to the circuitry for two adjacent planar detector arrays and adding an OR gate to the circuitry for each array. The improvement permits the same circuitry to be utilized for both cross-slice event processing and intra-slice event processing. Selection of the identification code for a detector is determined by a first coincidence detector in the case of an intra-slice event and the added coincidence detector in the case of an inter-slice event.

Cross-slice data acquisition system for pet scanner

A gamma ray coincidence analysis system for a multichannel nuclear imaging device of the type employing scintillation detectors in ring-like arrays, with the detectors arranged in quadrants of the rings. The scintillation detectors in a ring have output circuits including respective timing discriminators and OR gates, and respective energy discriminators providing delayed energy pulses, and wherein timing pulses from the respective quadrants are fed via the OR gates to the inputs of a four-input coincidence detector without any delay except for a small delay internal to the discriminators and the very small delay of the OR gates. The delay of the energy pulses at the energy discriminators is for an energy validation period of 500 nsec. The output pulse from the coincidence detector is subsequently delayed for a similar period for verification of the energy levels of the two channels causing the coincidence. A data output signal is generated responsive to the concurrence of the delayed coincidence signal and the delayed energy verification pulses.

Gamma ray coincidence analysis system

A flow indicating attachment for a transparent rotameter column containing a visible float movable in accordance with the rate of fluid flow through the column consists of a reciprocating scanner moving parallel to the column in a flow rate range including the range of float movement and coupled to a potentiometer forming a synchronous analog scanning signal which is furnished to a recorder. The scanner has a photoelectric float-sensing assembly including a photocell connected in the analog scanning signal circuit. When the sensing assembly is shaded by the rotameter float, it produces an abrupt dip in the recorded analog scanning signal, thus providing a recorded indication of the float's position in the range covered by the track of the reciprocating scanner.

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Olney, MD, United States of America

Horace E Cascio