title: Digital scintigraphy: principles, design, and performance.
abstract: In a digital camera the position of a scintillation event is computed following analog-to-digital conversion of photomultiplier pulse charges. Digital position analysis is essentially a mathematical inversion procedure based upon calibrated responses of the photomultipliers to scintillations from a narrow-beamed source that maps a detector's field of view. Operationally, a camera's image characteristics are optimized by means of computer-generated inversion reference tables, individually tailored to the specific response characteristics of each detector. Design considerations indicate that cameras of varied configurations, e.g., linear, disc-shaped, rectangular, or cylindrical, can be analyzed by this method. Also, for any given electro-optical system, energy resolution, spatial characteristics, and event-rate performance can be made superior to analog systems. The measured performances of a one-dimensional test camera, although limited in its optical and electronic design, support this conclusion.
mesh_terms: D000703:Analog-Digital Conversion; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010781:Photography / Q000295:instrumentation; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*