Nuclear medicine diagnostic instrument for the determination of the distribution pattern of a radioactive radiation source

Claim 2

A nuclear medicine diagnostic instrument for the determination of the distribution pattern of gamma ray emission of radioactive substances serving as a gamma ray source inserted into a body and emitting gamma quanta, said instrument consisting essentially of: the combination of a detector and an adjustable collimator means, said collimator means consisting of a plurality of multichannel collimator elements placed between the source and said detector to thereby form a distribution pattern for localizing said gamma quanta from said source in the body; said collimator elements being formed of perforated plates and further comprising at least one moveable collimator element, said elements lying on the source side of the collimator means and being axially shiftable; each of said plurality of collimator elements having its respective channels in mutual alignment and coaxial alignment with a neighboring channel in another collimator element to provide at least a pair of coaxially aligned collimator elements in the array; and adjustment means including limiting means for maximum adjustment to axially shift one of the said collimator elements relative to the neighboring collimator element and to maintain alignment of the elements whereby improvement in definition and sensitivity is achieved in the pattern of radiation.

Claim 3

A nuclear medicine diagnostic instrument for the determination of the distribution pattern of gamma ray emission of radioactive substances serving as a gamma ray source inserted into a body and emitting gamma quanta, said instrument consisting essentially of: the combination of a detector and an adjustable collimator means, said collimator means consisting of a plurality of multichannel collimator elements placed between the source and said detector to thereby form a distribution pattern for localizing said gamma quanta from said source in the body; said collimator elements being formed of perforated plates and further consisting of several moveable and relatively thin collimator portions having a longer base on the detector side of the perforated plate for a greater depth of bore on the detector side than on the source side; each of said plurality of collimator elements having its respective channels in mutual alignment and coaxial alignment with a neighboring channel in another collimator element to provide at least a pair of coaxially aligned collimator elements in the array; and adjustment means including limiting means for maximum adjustment to axially shift one of the said collimator elements relative to the neighboring collimator element and to maintain alignment of the elements whereby improvement in definition and sensitivity is achieved in the pattern of the radiation.

Claim 4

A nuclear medicine diagnostic instrument for the determination of the distribution pattern of gamma ray emission of radioactive substances serving as a gamma ray source inserted into a body and emitting gamma quanta, said instrument consisting essentially of: the combination of a detector and an adjustable collimator means, said collimator means consisting of a plurality of multichannel collimator elements placed between the source and said detector to thereby form a distribution pattern for localizing said gamma quanta from said source in the body; said collimator elements being formed of perforated plates and further consisting of several moveable and relatively thin collimator portions having a longer base on the detector side of the perforated plate for a greater depth of bore on the detector side than on the source side; each of said plurality of collimator elements having its respective channels in mutual alignment and coaxial alignment with a neighboring channel in another collimator element to provide at least a pair of coaxially aligned collimator elements in the array; and adjustment means including limiting means for maximum adjustment to axially shift one of the said collimator elements relative to the neighboring collimator element and to maintain alignment of the elements whereby improvement in definition and sensitivity is achieved in the pattern of the radiation.

Claim 5

A nuclear medicine diagnostic device as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that said moveable collimator portions of said moveable relatively thin collimator elements have channels which consist of protruding casings which are attached to said perforated carrying plate, and said adjustment means further includes pushing means whereby the casings can be pushed in the manner of a telescope into the channels of the adjacent collimator element.

Claim 6

A nuclear medicine diagnostic device as claimed in claim 3, characterized in that the combination of collimator elements and adjustment means further includes two outside perforated plates casings of substantially identical shape or one main surface of the perforated plate and a middle perforated plate and a middle perforated carrying plate which is provided with similarly shaped casings protruding in both sides thereof, the outside diameter of the middle casings being larger than the diameter of the casings of the outside perforated plates.

Claim 7

A nuclear medicine diagnostic device as claimed in claim 4 including a spindle and guide bars for said shifting means said guide bars guiding the moveable collimator elements without protruding from the casings and said shifting means by adjustable means of said spindle drive.