The 3D complete body screening (3D-CBS) features and implementation

An innovative, low-radiation 3D Complete-Body-Screening (3D-CBS) medical imaging device is presented, combining benefits of the functional imaging capability of PET with those of the anatomical imaging capability of CT. Although PET technology has existed for 50 years, its benefits have never been fully realized. In addition to the radiation problem, the problem of how to increase the narrow viewing field in a cost-effective manner so that full-body examination can be done quickly has always been a stumbling block-until now. The technological innovations, set forth in this article, are in the electronics that enables a different detector assembly, and together they enable execution of more complex algorithms measuring more accurately the information obtained from the collision of the photon with the detector. This improvement permits a cost-effective extension of the FOV to over one meter in length and captures more accurately about 1 in 10 pairs of photons emitted instead of the 1 in 10,000 pairs of photons captured by current PET. The innovations lie partly in the way existing components (available off the shelf) are assembled and partly in the innovative electronics (digital signal processing on each electronic channel). A hardware prototype implementing the innovative functions of the 3D-Flow architecture shows the feasibility of the entire system. This hardware construction is the basic element of the project. Several sections of the 3D-CBS have been simulated and built. The benefit of this research lies not only in improving the PET/CT efficiency by a factor of several hundred, but this technology creates competition and lowers examination cost.

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