A method for transversal tomography using gamma radiation : transversal transmission gammatomography

The present work introduces a new transversal tomography procedure, where the radiation source is a gamma-rays emitting radionuclide and the detector a scintillation counter. The procedure involves transversal and rotary motion of the collimated gamma-ray beam at the emitter-detector unit relative to the subject. The modulation transfer functions are calculated for each component unit, for the motions and finally for the complete system. A comparison indicates that the developed transversal transmission gammatomography (TTGT) ranks in terms of image resolution above radioisotope scintigraphy though lower than roentgen transversal tomography. The radiation load in the TTGT process is clearly smaller than that of conventional X-ray or scintigraphic methods. Some results and photographs of phantom and patient tomograms are presented.