Imaging probe

• US 20060036157A1
• Filed: 08/12/2005
• Published: 02/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nova R&D Incorporated (Kromek Group PLC)
• Original Assignee: Nova R&D Incorporated (Kromek Group PLC)
• Inventors: Tumer, Tumay O.
• Granted Patent: US 7,894,881 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/411
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/4258 for detecting non x-ray radiation, e.g. gamma radiation A61B6/037 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 6/508 for non-human patients
• CPC Class Codes: G01T 1/161 Applications in the field of nuclear medicine, e.g. in vivo counting apparatus for radiation diagnosis A61B6/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01T 7/00 Details of radiation-measuring instruments

Abstract

The design of a compact, handheld, solid-state and high-sensitivity imaging probe and a micro imager system is reported. These instruments can be used as a dedicated tool for detecting and locating sentinel lymph nodes and also for detecting and imaging radioactive material. The reported device will use solid state pixel detectors and custom low-noise frontend/readout integrated circuits. The detector will be designed to have excellent image quality and high spatial resolution. The imaging probes have two different embodiments, which are comprised of a pixelated detector array and a highly integrated readout system, which uses a custom multi-channel mixed signal integrated circuit. The instrument usually includes a collimator in front of the detector array so that the incident photons can be imaged. The data is transferred to an intelligent display system. A hyperspectral image can also be produced and displayed. These devices are designed to be portable for easy use.

Claims

1-20. -20. (canceled)

21. A method of imaging a portion of a living organism, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a radiopharmaceutical to said portion of said living organism, said radiopharmaceutical producing radiation;

positioning a detection system proximate to said portion of said living organism, wherein

said detection system comprised of at least one pixel and determines count rate, directions and energies for a portion of said radiation entering said at least one pixel;

processing said count rate, direction and energy data for said portion of radiation; and

displaying counts per pixel in real time, wherein said count is based on the detection of said portion of radiation.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein said portion of said living organism is an organ of the living organism.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein a spectrum of a portion of radiation detected is produced based on said energy data.

24. The method of claim 21, further comprising using the count per pixel to determine a position of at least one section of said portion of the said living organism which emits gamma rays at a higher rate than the background and locating said section.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein said processing produces a hyperspectral image based on said counts per pixel, direction and energy data.

26. The method of claim 21, further comprising a step of detecting at least one section of said portion of the said living organism which has higher uptake of the said radiopharmaceutical over the rest of the said portion.

27. The method of claim 21, wherein said imaging method uses a collimator to restrict the angle of the radiation for controlling the direction of the radiation that enters its aperture.

28. A medical detector system for monitoring a portion of a living organism treated with a radiopharmaceutical comprising:

a detector comprised of at least one element;

an entrance aperture on said detector system wherein a portion of emitted radiation from said radiopharmaceutical enter into said detector system and a portion of the said radiation that enter through the said entrance aperture is detected within said detector system;

a readout system coupled to at least one said pixel of said detector;

a processor coupled to said readout system; and

a display system coupled to said processor and said display system displaying data coming through the said detector system monitoring the said portion of said living organism in real time.

29. The medical detector system of claim 28, wherein said display system displays count of particles detected within the said detector system.

30. The medical detector system of claim 28, further comprising a collimator to restrict angle of radiation incident on the said detector to determine the direction of the incident radiation.

31. The medical detector system of claim 28, wherein said radiopharmaceutical is tagged with a radioactive material selected from the group consisting of thallium-201, technetium-99m, iodine-123, iodine-131, and fluorine-18.

32. The medical detector system of claim 28, further comprising a handle for holding the said medical imaging system.

33. The medical detector system of claim 28, wherein said detector is selected from at least one of the detector types including single detectors, pad detectors, pixel detectors, double sided microstrip detectors, double sided strip detectors, and double sided pixel detectors.

34. The medical detector system of claim 28, wherein at least one side of the said detector contain plurality of pixels.

35. The medical detector system of claim 28, wherein said pixels are made from ohmic type electrodes.

36. The medical detector system of claim 28, wherein said pixels are made from blocking type electrodes.

37. The medical detector system of claim 28, wherein pitch of said plurality of pixels has a value from 0.01 to 10 mm.

38. The medical detector system of claim 28, wherein there is at least one detector plane.

39. The medical detector system of claim 28, wherein said detector material is selected from the group of detector materials consisting of Silicon, HPGe, BGO, CdWo4, CsF, NaI(Tl), CsI(Na), CsI(Tl), CdTe, CdZnTe, HgI₂, GaAs, and PbI₂.

40. The medical detector system of claim 28, wherein said detector system is compact and portable.