Joint estimation of activity image and attenuation sinogram using time-of-flight positron emission tomography data consistency condition filtering

Quanzheng Li; Hao Li; Kyungsang Kim; Georges El Fakhri

doi:10.1117/1.JMI.4.2.023502

26 April 2017 Joint estimation of activity image and attenuation sinogram using time-of-flight positron emission tomography data consistency condition filtering

Quanzheng Li, Hao Li, Kyungsang Kim, Georges El Fakhri

Author Affiliations +

Journal of Medical Imaging, Vol. 4, Issue 2, 023502 (April 2017). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JMI.4.2.023502

Abstract

Attenuation correction is essential for quantitative reliability of positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. In time-of-flight (TOF) PET, attenuation sinogram can be determined up to a global constant from noiseless emission data due to the TOF PET data consistency condition. This provides the theoretical basis for jointly estimating both activity image and attenuation sinogram/image directly from TOF PET emission data. Multiple joint estimation methods, such as maximum likelihood activity and attenuation (MLAA) and maximum likelihood attenuation correction factor (MLACF), have already been shown that can produce improved reconstruction results in TOF cases. However, due to the nonconcavity of the joint log-likelihood function and Poisson noise presented in PET data, the iterative method still requires proper initialization and well-designed regularization to prevent convergence to local maxima. To address this issue, we propose a joint estimation of activity image and attenuation sinogram using the TOF PET data consistency condition as an attenuation sinogram filter, and then evaluate the performance of the proposed method using computer simulations.

Citation Download Citation

Quanzheng Li, Hao Li, Kyungsang Kim, and Georges El Fakhri "Joint estimation of activity image and attenuation sinogram using time-of-flight positron emission tomography data consistency condition filtering," Journal of Medical Imaging 4(2), 023502 (26 April 2017). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JMI.4.2.023502

Received: 5 June 2016; Accepted: 5 April 2017; Published: 26 April 2017

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available