Nuclear medical diagnostic equipment and data acquisition method for nuclear medical diagnosis

• US 20050187465A1
• Filed: 12/27/2004
• Published: 08/25/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/05/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (Canon Inc.), Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Nisawa, Yoshifumi, Horiuchi, Syouji, Motomura, Nobutoku, Hayashi, Masuo
• Granted Patent: US 7,720,518 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/428
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/037 Emission tomography
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/541 involving acquisition triggered by a physiological signal

Abstract

A nuclear medical diagnostic equipment wherein radiation which is emitted by a nuclide administered into the body of a patient is detected as projection data by a gamma camera, and an image which indicates the distribution of the nuclide within the body of the patient is obtained on the basis of the projection data. The equipment comprises a rotation unit which rotates the radiation detector round the patient, a respiration identification unit which identifies breathing of the patient and non-breathing thereof based on breath holding, a data storage unit in which the radiation detection data acquired by the radiation detector are stored in an identifiable manner on the basis of a result of the identification by the respiration identification unit, and an image generation unit which generates the image from the radiation detection data stored in the data storage unit on the basis of the result of the identification by the respiration identification unit.

Claims

1. A nuclear medical diagnostic equipment wherein radiation which is emitted by a nuclide administered into a body of a patient is detected as projection data by a radiation detector, and an image which indicates a distribution of the nuclide within the body of the patient is obtained on the basis of the projection data, comprising:

a rotation unit which rotates the radiation detector round the patient;

a respiration identification unit which identifies breathing of the patient and non-breathing thereof based on breath holding;

a data storage unit in which the radiation detection data acquired by said radiation detector are stored in an identifiable manner on the basis of a result of the identification by said respiration identification unit; and

an image generation unit which generates the image from the radiation detection data stored in said data storage unit on the basis of the result of the identification by said respiration identification unit.

2. A nuclear medical diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 1, wherein said respiration identification unit includes a command unit which gives commands for time periods of the breath holdings, and an acquisition unit which acquires the projection data detected by said radiation detector in synchronism with the breath holding time periods commanded by said command unit.

3. A nuclear medical diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 1, wherein said respiration identification unit includes a command unit which gives commands for time periods of the breath holdings, an acquisition unit which acquires the projection data detected by said radiation detector in synchronism with the breath holding time periods commanded by said command unit, and an addition unit which adds up the projection data acquired in only the breath holding time periods by said acquisition unit.

4. A nuclear medical diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 1, wherein said respiration identification unit includes a signal generation unit which generates signals respectively indicating a start and an end of each of the breath holdings, and an acquisition unit which acquires the projection data detected by said radiation detector, in accordance with the signals generated by said signal generation unit.

5. A nuclear medical diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 4, wherein said signal generation unit is a switch which is manipulated by the patient.

6. A nuclear medical diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 4, wherein said signal generation unit is a switch which is manipulated by the patient, and said data storage unit records the projection data in different memory areas corresponding respectively to the periods for which said signal generation unit has generated the signals respectively indicating the starts and ends of the breath holdings, and to the other periods.

7. A nuclear medical diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 1, wherein said radiation detector is fixed at a position in a predetermined radiographing direction so as to detect the projection data.

8. A nuclear medical diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 1, wherein said radiation detector is successively moved to positions in a plurality of radiographing directions so as to detect the projection data at the positions in the respective radiographing directions.

9. A nuclear medical diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 8, wherein said nuclear medical diagnostic equipment is an equipment which performs tomography called either of “

single photon emission computed tomography”

or “

positron emission computed tomography”

.

10. A nuclear medical diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 1, wherein:

said radiation detector is successively moved to positions in a plurality of radiographing directions so as to detect the projection data at the respective positions in the radiographing directions; and

said respiration identification unit includes a breath-holding control unit which causes the patient to conduct the breath holdings and stops of the breath holdings alternately and iteratively at the respective positions in the plurality of radiographing directions, and it acquires the projection data acquired by said radiation detector so as to supply the acquired projection data for the generation of the image, during only periods of the breath holdings based on said breath-holding control unit.

11. A nuclear medical diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 1, wherein said image generation unit generates a first image by using only the radiation detection data acquired in a state of the non-breathing, while it generates a second image by using the radiation detection data respectively acquired in both the state of the non-breathing and a state of the breathing.

12. A nuclear medical diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 1, wherein said image generation unit generates a first image by using only the radiation detection data acquired in a state of the non-breathing, while it generates a second image by using the radiation detection data respectively acquired in both the state of the non-breathing and a state of the breathing;

and it includes an image-display-method setting unit which displays the first image and the second image on a display unit simultaneously.

13. A nuclear medical diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 1, wherein said image generation unit includes a data-ratio setting unit which sets a rate of the radiation detection data for use in the image generation, in the radiation detection data acquired in a state of the breathing, and it generates an image by using the radiation detection data at the rate set by said data-ratio setting unit.

14. A nuclear medical diagnostic equipment wherein radiation which is emitted by a nuclide administered into a body of a patient is detected as projection data by a radiation detector, and an image which indicates a distribution of the nuclide within the body of the patient is obtained on the basis of the projection data, comprising:

a rotation unit which rotates the radiation detector round the patient; and

an image generation unit which generates the image by using the radiation detection data acquired by said radiation detector in a breathing state of the patient and anon-breathing state thereof based on breath holding, respectively.

15. A nuclear medical diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 14, wherein said image generation unit generates a first image by using only the radiation detection data acquired in the non-breathing state, while it generates a second image by using the radiation detection data respectively acquired in both the non-breathing state and the breathing state.

16. A nuclear medical diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 14, wherein said image generation unit generates a first image by using only the radiation detection data acquired in the non-breathing state, while it generates a second image by using the radiation detection data respectively acquired in both the non-breathing state and the breathing state;

and

it includes an image-display-method setting unit which displays the first image and the second image on a display unit simultaneously.

17. A nuclear medical diagnostic equipment as defined in claim 14, wherein said image generation unit includes a data-ratio setting unit which sets a rate of the radiation detection data for use in the image generation, in the radiation detection data acquired in the breathing state, and it generates the image by using the radiation detection data at the rate set by said data-ratio setting unit.

18. A data acquisition method for a nuclear medical diagnosis wherein radiation which is emitted by a nuclide administered into a body of a patient is detected as projection data by a radiation detector, comprising the steps of:

obtaining identification information which identifies a breathing state of the patient and a non-breathing state thereof based on breath holding; and

storing the projection data in a manner to be capable of identifying whether the projection data have been acquired in the non-breathing state or in the breathing state, by using the identification information.

19. A data acquisition method for a nuclear medical diagnosis wherein radiation which is emitted by a nuclide administered into a body of a patient is detected as projection data by a radiation detector, comprising the steps of:

storing the projection data which have been acquired by the radiation detector in a breathing state of the patient and a non-breathing state thereof based on breath holding, respectively, in a manner to be capable of identifying whether the projection data have been acquired in the non-breathing state or in the breathing state; and

generating an image by using both the projection data acquired in the non-breathing state and the projection data acquired in the breathing state.