Correction of head movements in positron emission tomography using point source tracking system: a simulation study.

Aim: The motion of the head during brain positron emission tomography (PET) acquisitions has been identified as a source of artifact in the reconstructed image. In this study, a method is described to develop an image-based motion correction technique for correcting the post-acquisition data without using external optical motion-tracking system such as POLARIS.

Method: In this technique, GATE has been used to simulate PET brain scan using point sources mounted around the head to accurately monitor the position of the head during the time frames.