STEPHEN S MILLER, M.D.
Osteopathic Medicine at Alcoa Hwy, Knoxville, TN

6429434, Aug 6, 2002

Sep 17, 1999

09/398497

Charles C. Watson - Knoxville TN 37922
Stephen D. Miller - Knoxville TN 37922
Ronald Nutt - Knoxville TN 37922
Michael E. Casey - Knoxville TN 37919
James J. Hamill - Knoxville TN 37909

G01T 1166

25036304, 25037009

A transmission source serves to detect activity from a radiation source for correcting attenuation in either PET mode or SPECT mode. The transmission source includes a detector dedicated to collecting attenuation data in PET mode. 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 transmission source can either be a coincidence transmission source or a singles transmission source and 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. In a dual head tomograph device, one transmission source of the present invention is disposed opposite each bank of imaging detectors.

6577890, Jun 10, 2003

Sep 8, 2000

09/659436

John M. Hayes - Macedonia OH
Piotr J. Maniawski - Sagamore Hills OH
Stephen Miller - Knoxville TN

Koninklijke Philips Electronics, N.V. - Eindhoven

A61B 600

600436, 25036304, 25036305

A nuclear medicine imaging device includes a plurality of detector heads ( ) mounted to a movable gantry for rotation around an examination region ( ). The detector heads ( ) include a housing ( ) which surrounds a radiation sensitive crystal ( ) which converts received radiation events. A positioning mechanism on the gantry maintains a relationship between the detector heads ( ) such that the housing for one detector head lies adjacent to and overlaps the housing for another detector head. During an imaging event, the gantry rotates the detector heads ( ) about a region of interest ( ) while radiation events are sampled. At a predetermined position relative to the area of interest, the overlapping of the detector heads is reversed.

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.

6177675, Jan 23, 2001

Apr 22, 1998

9/064458

Daniel Gagnon - Twinsburg OH
Stephen D. Miller - Knoxville TN
William G. Hawkins - Shaker Heights OH

Picker International, Inc. - Cleveland OH

G01T 1166

2503631

A gamma camera system includes a rotatable gantry supporting multiple detector heads each capable of receiving radiation from a region of interest of a subject disposed in an examination region. Each of the detector heads include a collimator which substantially defines the resolution and sensitivity of the respective detector head. At least two of the detector heads include collimators providing different resolution. Preferably, one of the collimators provides a detector head with substantially high resolution and another provides a detector head with substantially high sensitivity. An operator selectively combines image data detected by each of the multiple detector heads. If desired, the operator combine the image data from the multiple detector heads in a variety of manners to obtain images of various resolution and sensitivity from a single imaging procedure. The operator may also selectively weight the contribution that the image data from each of the detector heads has in the overall image. As yet another option, the operator may choose to combine only a high energy portion of the image data so as to minimize the amount of scatter events which are included in a final image.