Collimated trans-axial tomographic scintillation camera

The principal problem in trans-axial tomographic radioisotope scanning is the length of time required to obtain meaningful data. Patient movement and radioisotope migration during the scanning period can cause distortion of the image. The object of this invention is to reduce the scanning time without degrading the images obtained. A system is described in which a scintillation camera detector is moved to an orbit about the cranial-caudal axis relative to the patient. A collimator is used in which lead septa are arranged so as to admit gamma rays travelling perpendicular to this axis with high spatial resolution and those travelling in the direction of the axis with low spatial resolution, thus increasing the rate of acceptance of radioactive events to contribute to the positional information obtainable without sacrificing spatial resolution. (author)