Investigations in improving image visualization and quality in positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) imaging.

摘要

Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography (PET/CT) is a widely used imaging modality for managing patients with cancer. The combination of PET and CT can provide both functional and anatomic information of disease distribution. However, despite its widespread use, it also has some limitations. One drawback is that current PET/CT scanners cannot acquire whole-body scan in a single acquisition but rather has to divide it into multiple sections due to a limitation in the extent of bed travel. The first part of this thesis focuses on developing a software tool that can display multiple PET segments as a single scan to improve the interpretation of these studies.;The second part of the thesis focuses on another limitation of PET/CT imaging, namely its low image quality. In this section, an investigation of the correlation between injected dose, patient BMI and scanner design on PET image quality is performed. The objective of this investigation is to determine the significance and extent by which these factors can impact PET image quality. The results of this work can be used as a guide to improve protocol design in an effort to generate an optimal PET image quality.