Three-dimensional object reconstruction from Compton scattered gamma-ray data

A new imaging principle for object reconstruction is proposed in Single Photon Emission Computer Tomography (SPECT) which is widely used in nuclear medicine. The quality of SPECT images is largely affected by many adverse factors among which chiefly Compton scattering of gamma rays. Recently we have proposed to exploit Compton scattered radiation to generate new data necessary for object reconstruction, instead of discarding it as usually done. This has led us to a new underlying imaging principle based on the inversion of a generalized Radon transform. In this new three-dimensional reconstruction method both signal to noise ratio and image quality are improved. Remarkably the complete data, collected at various angles of scattering, can be obtained by a motionless data taking gamma camera. Examples of object reconstruction are presented as illustrations.