An electronic collimation technique is developed which utilizes the chi-square goodness-of-fit measure to filter scattered gammas incident upon a medical imaging detector. In this data mining technique, Compton kinematic expressions are used as the chi-square fitting templates for measured energy-deposition data involving multiple-interaction scatter sequences. Fit optimization is conducted using the Davidon variable metric minimization algorithm to simultaneously determine the best-fit gamma scatter angles and their associated uncertainties, with the uncertainty associated with the first scatter angle corresponding to the angular resolution precision for the source. The methodology requires no knowledge of materials and geometry. This pattern recognition application enhances the ability to select those gammas that will provide the best resolution for input to reconstruction software. Illustrative computational results are presented for a conceptual truncated-ellipsoid polystyrene position-sensitive fibre head-detector Monte Carlo model using a triple Compton scatter gamma sequence assessment for a 99mTc point source. A filtration rate of 94.3% is obtained, resulting in an estimated sensitivity approximately three orders of magnitude greater than a high-resolution mechanically collimated device. The technique improves the nominal single-scatter angular resolution by up to approximately 24 per cent as compared with the conventional analytic electronic collimation measure.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.