Complementary reconstruction: Improving image quality in dynamic PET studies

摘要

In dynamic PET studies [1], kinetic model parameters are estimated by recovering temporal tracer uptakes in the targeted tissues inside the subject. There are multiple ways to estimate the model parameters either directly from the PET sonogram (or list mode) data, or indirectly from the reconstructed images. One widely used method is the individual frame-by-frame reconstruction (IFR) method where the whole scan time duration is divided into multiple time frames, and the data in the each individual time frame is reconstructed separately. All the reconstructed images are used to obtain the temporal tracer uptake changes, and estimate kinetic parameters for quantitative studies. The method often has a drawback having low accuracy on the estimation process due to limited count rates when the frames are divided into very short time intervals to achieve enough temporal resolution.