COMPUTER PROCESSING OF SCINTILLATION CAMERA DATA.

The Nuclear Medicine Laboratory of Queens General Hospital uses a Nuclear-Chicago Pho/Gamma III Scintillation Camera for organ visualization and tumor diagnosis in patients who have been given intravenous injections of saline solutions with gamma emitting isotopes. Under normal operation, the scintillation camera presents an organ ″scan″ as a collection of dots on the cathode ray tube (CRT). Using an auxilliary persistance oscilloscope, or photographic film, the data are integrated over time to form an image of the organ. The dots are generated by the camera to indicate the position of detected gamma emissions. The camera electronics generates X and Y deflection voltages to steer the CRT, and an ″UNBLANK″ pulse to illuminate the screen. The occurrence and position of a gamma emission can be placed in a computer using A/D converters, synchronized to the UNBLANK pulse, to provide digital X and Y values indicating the location of the ″dot″ . Once the ″dots″ are in memory the software can manipulate the data base to accomplish the desired image modification. Output of the modified image is presented to a display CRT, using dual D/A's to generate the X, Y position voltages and a third D/A to generate the UNBLANK signal.