DR. MICHAEL T CASEY, MD
Medical Practice at Clinch Ave, Knoxville, TN

4743764, May 10, 1988

Dec 4, 1984

6/677931

Michael E. Casey - Knoxville TN
Ronald Nutt - Knoxville TN
Terry D. Douglas - Knoxville TN

Computer Technology and Imaging, Inc. - Knoxville TN

G01T 120

250363S

A two dimensional photon position encoder system (10) and process which includes a detector (20) for enhancing the spatial resolution of the situs of the origin of incident photons of gamma rays. A plurality of scintillator material members (22) interact with the incident photons and produce a quantifiable number of photons which exit the scintillation material members. A tuned light guide (68) having a plurality of radiation barriers (92) of predetermined lengths define slots which are operatively associated with one of the scintillator material members. Photons exiting the scintillator material members (22) enter an operatively associated slot in said slotted light guide. These slots (90) serve to enhance the predictability of the statistical distribution of photons along the length of the slotted light guide (68). A detector (20) detects the distribution of the photons at preselected locations along the length of the slotted light guide. In one embodiment, this detector (20) comprises a photomultiplier (70) which gathers information concerning the photoelectrons which are then counted.

6774358, Aug 10, 2004

Mar 21, 2002

10/103276

James J. Hamill - Knoxville TN
Michael E. Casey - Knoxville TN
Timothy G. Gremillion - Knoxville TN
Wing K. Luk - Knoxville TN
Stephen Miller - Knoxville TN

CTI Pet Systems, Inc. - Knoxville TN

G01K 500

2502521, 25036303

Apparatus and methods for simulating a sheet source with a line source for determining normalization coefficients for the detectors in positron emission tomography (PET) scanners and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scanners. A line source, oriented perpendicular to the axis of a scanner gantry, is moved along the axis while the detectors are stationary and positioned substantially parallel to the plane in which the source moves. In another embodiment, an axially mounted line source moves parallel to a diameter of the gantry while the stationary detectors are positioned substantially parallel to the plane in which the source moves. In still another embodiment, the line source is stationary and positioned parallel to the gantry axis and off center while the detectors move relative to the line source. A shaped attenuator is placed around the source in this last embodiment.

6329657, Dec 11, 2001

May 1, 1998

9/070951

Charles C. Watson - Knoxville TN
Ronald Nutt - Knoxville TN
J. Clifton Moyers - Oak Ridge TN
Michael E. Casey - Knoxville TN
William F. Jones - Knoxville TN

CTI Pet Systems, Inc. - Knoxville TN

G01T 1163

25036304

A coincidence transmission source serves to detect coincident activity from a radiation source. The coincidence transmission source includes a detector dedicated to collecting attenuation data. A collimated radiation source and a detector are positioned with respect to a tomography device such that only a selected strip of the imaging detector of the tomograph is illuminated such that events unrelated to the attenuation are eliminated. The coincidence transmission source includes a collimator in which is disposed a radiation source. An opening is defined by the collimator for exposing a selected portion of the imaging detectors of the tomograph device. Positioned behind the radiation source, relative to the imaging detectors, is the dedicated attenuation detector. The attenuation detector and collimator are designed to illuminate only a strip of the imaging detector, thereby eliminating events not of interest in the attenuation measurement. In a dual head tomograph device, one coincidence transmission source of the present invention is disposed opposite each bank of imaging detectors.

5224037, Jun 29, 1993

Mar 15, 1991

7/670291

William F. Jones - Knoxville TN
Michael E. Casey - Knoxville TN
Larry G. Byars - Oak Ridge TN

CTI, Inc. - Knoxville TN

G06F 1500

36441319

A 3-dimensional projection system (10) for the rapid back projection of multi-ring Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan data composed of planes (44) of two-dimensional data defining individual Lines Of Response (LOR) (42) into a plurality of image voxels for three-dimensional display on a video screen. The projection system (10) of the preferred embodiment is a Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) based architecture which will support forward and back projection for a 3-dimensional image detected by a multi-ring PET scanner. A selected number of processing engines (20) are included for forward projection and back projection, the number of engines (20) being inversely proportional to the projection time.

6963065, Nov 8, 2005

Apr 18, 2003

10/418520

Maurizio Conti - Knoxville TN, US
James J. Hamill - Knoxville TN, US
Michael E. Casey - Knoxville TN, US
Mu Chen - Knoxville TN, US

CTI PET Systems, Inc. - Knoxville TN

G01D018/00, G12B013/00

2502521, 25036303, 25036304, 25037007, 2503701, 2504931, 2504941, 600427

A normalization apparatus and method for a PET scanner with panel detectors for obtaining an estimate of a normalization array, for correction for count rate effects on the normalization array, and for measurement of the relation between the normalization array and the count rate. The method of the present invention is based on two quasi-independent radial and axial components, which are count rate dependent due to sensitivity changes across the detector blocks. A scatter source is disposed at the center of the FOV and a scatter-free source is disposed at the outer edge of the FOV. The method computes the normalization array through several steps which evaluate the geometric profile, the axial profile, and the correction factor. A count rate correction is introduced to extend the normalization array to any count rate.

7301153, Nov 27, 2007

Mar 23, 2006

11/387377

Lars A. Eriksson - Oak Ridge TN, US
Matthias J. Schmand - Lenoir City TN, US
Michael E. Casey - Knoxville TN, US
Niraj K. Doshi - Knoxville TN, US
Mehmet Aykac - Knoxville TN, US
Ronald Nutt - Knoxville TN, US

Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc. - Malvern PA

G01T 1/20

250368, 2503701, 25037011

Apparatus and method for providing nuclear medical imaging, in particular positron emission tomography, wherein a panel detector including scintillation blocks with a light guide is attached thereto. The scintillation block is arranged to cover a plurality of photosensors in an N by N configuration where there are outer photosensors which share light information from adjacent scintillation blocks and at least one center photosensor which does not share light information from adjacent scintillation blocks.

6915004, Jul 5, 2005

Feb 28, 2002

10/086906

Danny F. Newport - Knoxville TN, US
Michael E. Casey - Knoxville TN, US
Wing K. Luk - Knoxville TN, US
Johnny H. Reed - Clinton TN, US

CTI PET Systems, Inc. - Knoxville TN

G06K009/00

382131, 382168, 128922, 25036303, 378 4

Apparatus and methods for three dimensional image reconstruction from data acquired in a positron emission tomograph (PET). This invention uses a parallel/pipelined architecture for processing the acquired data as it is acquired from the scanner. The asynchronously acquired data is synchronously stepped through the stages performing histogramming, normalization, transmission/attenuation, Mu image reconstruction, attenuation correction, rebinning, image reconstruction, scatter correction, and image display.