Journal of Imaging (Sep 2021)

Fast Energy Dependent Scatter Correction for List-Mode PET Data

  • Juan Manuel Álvarez-Gómez,
  • Joaquín Santos-Blasco,
  • Laura Moliner Martínez,
  • María José Rodríguez-Álvarez

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging7100199
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 10
p. 199

Abstract

Read online

Improvements in energy resolution of modern positron emission tomography (PET) detectors have created opportunities to implement energy-based scatter correction algorithms. Here, we use the energy information of auxiliary windows to estimate the scatter component. Our method is directly implemented in an iterative reconstruction algorithm, generating a scatter-corrected image without the need for sinograms. The purpose was to implement a fast energy-based scatter correction method on list-mode PET data, when it was not possible to use an attenuation map as a practical approach for the scatter degradation. The proposed method was evaluated using Monte Carlo simulations of various digital phantoms. It accurately estimated the scatter fraction distribution, and improved the image contrast in the simulated studied cases. We conclude that the proposed scatter correction method could effectively correct the scattered events, including multiple scatters and those originated in sources outside the field of view.

Keywords