[Single photon emission computed tomography by using fan beam collimator].

A multislice fan beam collimator which has parallel collimation along the cephalic-caudal axis of a patient and converging collimation within planes that are perpendicular to that axis was designed for a SPECT system with a rotating scintillation camera, and it was constructed by the lead casting method which was developed in recent years. A reconstruction algorithm for fan beam SPECT was formed originally by combining the reconstruction algorithm of the parallel beam SPECT with that of the fan beam X-ray CT. The algorithm for fan beam SPECT was confirmed by means of computer simulation and a head phantom filled with diluted radionuclide. Not only 99mTc but also 131I was used as a radionuclide. A SPECT image with the fan beam collimator was compared with that of a parallel hole, low energy, high resolution collimator which was routinely used for clinical and research SPECT studies. Both system resolution and sensitivity of the fan beam collimator were approximately 20% better than those of the parallel hole collimator. Comparing SPECT images obtained from fan beam collimator with those of parallel hole collimator, the SPECT images using fan beam collimator had far better resolution. A fan beam collimator is a useful implement for the SPECT study.