The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 13, 2001
Filed:
Apr. 02, 1998
Bruce E. Lutheran, Mentor, OH (US);
Frank P. DiFilippo, University Heights, OH (US);
Daniel Gagnon, Twinsburg, OH (US);
Picker International, Inc., Cleveland, OH (US);
Abstract
A transmission radiation source assembly suitable for use in both SPECT and PET imaging includes a line source assembly having a medium energy transmission source. The line source assembly includes a primary collimator rotatably disposed about the medium energy transmission source. The primary collimator includes one or more beam limiting slots for shaping the width of a transmission beam emitted from the line source. An on/off collimator is rotatably disposed about the primary collimator and serves to control the on/off state of the line source. The on/off collimator includes a beam exit slot which, when aligned with one of the beam limiting slots allows the transmission beam to exit the line source. In order to sweep the transmission beam across an opposing detector head, the primary collimator and on/off collimator are synchronously rotated about an axis of rotation of the line source with the on/off collimator in the “on” position. In order to reduce the possibility of over saturating an opposing detector head with radiation from the line source, the rate at which the primary collimator and on/off collimator are rotated is such that the transmission beam spends greater time in regions of the examination region having high attenuation characteristics and shorter time in regions having low attenuation characteristics.