Biography
Dennis was a Board Certified Radiologist, with a strong background in Medical Physics obtained as an undergraduate at U.C. Berkeley.  He came from the University of California, Irvine after finishing his Radiology training in 1970. He did  visionary work and published widely on cost benefit analysis. He took the lead in a number of brain and liver imaging projects. He also developed interesting and effective ways of visualizing the kinetics of blood flow by time coded color imaging. This was particularly useful in determining where to place ROIs over the heart when one needed to sample transients from isolated segments representing the different heart chambers. Bill Ashburn had approached this in a similar way. Others used two different radiolabels on MAA injected selectively in the right and left coronary arteries to separate the territories infused therefrom.  Dennis took the lead in many projects and wrote a number of papers on liver and brain imaging.  Dennis was recruited to the University of Arizona in Tucson in 1975.  Dennis retired from University of Arizona , and returned to San Francisco in 2003. He worked in a San Francisco PET imaging Center, where he died in 2007.

Publications

1. Holden, R. W., E. V. Staab and D. D. Patton (1973). “Endocranial venous collateral flow in unilateral innominate vein occlusion.” Radiology 107(2): 353-357.
2. Lane, S. D., D. D. Patton, E. V. Staab and R. J. Baglan (1972). “Simple technique for rapid bolus injection.” J Nucl Med 13(1): 118-119.
3. Patton, D. D. (1971). “Computer-assisted instruction in the radiological sciences using a desk-top computer.” Radiology 100(3): 553-559.
4. Patton, D. D., D. B. Hertsgaard and E. V. Staab (1973). “Frontal lucency sign on brain scans.” Radiology 106(2): 353-356.
5. Patton, J. A., J. W. Hollifield, A. B. Brill, G. S. Lee and D. D. Patton (1976). “Differentiation between malignant and benign solitary thyroid nodules by fluorescent scanning.” J Nucl Med 17(1): 17-21.
6. Staab, E. V., J. Hopkins, D. D. Patton, J. Hanchett and W. J. Stone (1973). “The use of radionuclide studies in the prediction of function in renal failure.” Radiology 106(1): 141-146.
7. Staab, E. V. and D. D. Patton (1973). “Nuclear medicine studies in patients with pericardial effusion.” Semin Nucl Med 3(2): 191-201.
8. Staab, E. V., F. Whittier, D. D. Patton, E. H. Ginn and J. R. Ackerman (1973). “Early evaluation of cadaver renal allotransplant by means of radionuclide imaging.” Radiology 106(1): 147-151.
9. Brill, A.B., and Patton, D.D.: Radioisotopic Methods in Diagnosis and Assessment of Liver Metastases. Int. J. Rad. Oncol. Biol. Phys. Vol. 1, 981‑990, 1976. Erickson, J.J.,
10. Brill, A.B., Patton, D.D., Williams, H., Ahuja, S., and Price, R.R.: Automated Brain Bolus Analyses and Significance of Various Extracted Parameters. Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Symposium on Sharing of Computer Programs and Technology in Nuclear Medicine, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, May 10‑11, 1974. USAEC, Division of Technical Information,