Exact and approximate rebinning of time-of-flight PET positron emission tomography data

摘要

A technique for processing of data from time-of-flight (TOF) PET scanners. The size of TOF PET data may be reduced without significant loss of information through a process called rebinning. The rebinning may use the Fourier transform properties of the measured PET data, taken with respect to the time-of-flight variable, to perform data reduction. Through this rebinning process, TOF PET data may be converted to any of the following reduced representations: 2D TOF PET data, 3D non-TOF PET data, and 2D non-TOF PET data. Mappings may be exact or approximate. Approximate mappings may not require a Fourier transform in the axial direction which may have advantages when used with PET scanners of limited axial extent. Once TOF PET data is reduced in size using this rebinning, PET images may be reconstructed with hardware and/or software that is substantially less complex and that may run substantially faster in comparison to reconstruction from the original non-rebinned data.