A compact and mobile gantry for 3-dimensional Application Specific
Emission and/or Transmission Tomography (ASETT) imaging of the breast in
single photon or coincidence emission modes, and single photon, or
coincidence, or x-ray transmission modes. While the ASETT gantry was
designed, built and evaluated for imaging metabolically active lesions in
the pendant breast, it can also be used to image other organs and
objects. This system overcomes physical constraints associated with
imaging a pendulous breast in prone patients, while simultaneously
satisfying sampling criteria for sufficient data collection in the
pendulous breast reference frame. When combined with an offset cone-beam
tomographic x-ray transmission imaging system, this dual modality ASETT
system could provide simultaneous and coregistered structural and
functional information about large or dense breasts, breasts with
indeterminate x-ray mammography, and could also be used to accurately
3-dimensionally guide biopsy or surgical resection. Moreover, with the
offset beam orientation, the transmission system is designed to have a
variable FOV and minimize overall absorbed breast dose.