Image improvements in positron-emission tomography due to measuring differential time-of-flight and using maximum-likelihood estimation

Conference · Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 1990 · IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (USA)

OSTI ID:6584222

Politte, D G ^[1]

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1. Institute for Biomedical Computing, Biomedical Computer Lab., Washington Univ., St. Louis, MO (US)

Two distinctly different methods have been used to improve images produced in positron-emission tomography. The first method is to measure the differential time of flight of the photon pairs which are detected; the second is to use an iterative algorithm which computes maximum likelihood estimates of radioactivity distributions. The authors have quantified the performance of algorithms which include neither, one or the other, or both methods of improvement by performing a repetitive simulation experiment using the Hoffman brain phantom as the underlying distribution of radioactivity. The authors' simulations show that all of the algorithms yield unbiased estimates of the desired image. The algorithm which computes maximum-likelihood estimates using time-of-flight information reconstructs images with the lowest variance. The algorithm which uses neither of these methods (filtered backprojection) reconstructs images with the highest variance.

• OSTI ID: 6584222
• Report Number(s): CONF-900143-; CODEN: IETNA; TRN: 90-033782
• Journal Information: IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (USA), Vol. 37:2; Conference: Institute for Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) nuclear science symposium, San Francisco, CA (USA), 15-19 Jan 1990; ISSN 0018-9499
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

61 RADIATION PROTECTION AND DOSIMETRY
62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE
07 ISOTOPES AND RADIATION SOURCES
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
BRAIN
PHANTOMS
IMAGE PROCESSING
OPTIMIZATION
DOSIMETRY
POSITRON COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY
ALGORITHMS
BACKSCATTERING
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DEPTH DOSE DISTRIBUTIONS
DIAGNOSTIC USES
ITERATIVE METHODS
MAXIMUM-LIKELIHOOD FIT
RADIOACTIVITY
TIME-OF-FLIGHT METHOD
BODY
CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM
COMPUTERIZED TOMOGRAPHY
DIAGNOSTIC TECHNIQUES
EMISSION COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY
MATHEMATICAL LOGIC
MOCKUP
NERVOUS SYSTEM
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
ORGANS
PROCESSING
RADIATION DOSE DISTRIBUTIONS
SCATTERING
SIMULATION
SPATIAL DOSE DISTRIBUTIONS
STRUCTURAL MODELS
TOMOGRAPHY
USES
655003* - Medical Physics- Dosimetry
550601 - Medicine- Unsealed Radionuclides in Diagnostics
655002 - Medical Physics- Radiation Source Calibration & Standardization
990200 - Mathematics & Computers