A new method of multiplanar emission tomography using a seven pinhole collimator and an Anger scintillation camera

A new method of multiplanar emission tomography is described; it uses a wide-field Anger scintillation camera (37.5 cm crystal diameter) and a seven-pinhole collimator. The pinholes (5.5 mm) acquire data simultaneously from the emissing source and project the data onto seven independent regions of the camera crystal. Multiple planes are reconstructed from the initial seven-view data acquisition through the use of a computerized addition-multiplication algorithm and variation of the superposition relationships among the projected views. These planes are then altered iteratively by a least-error criterion following ray-sum comparison with the original views. Planar resolution (full-width-half-maximum) is 1.0 cm and depth resolution is 1.5 cm. In 42 patients with angiographically demonstrated coronary-artery disease, studies of myocardial Tl-201 perfusion, under exercise, have shown improved detection sensitivity in comparison with scintigraphy using parallel-hole collimation.