Image Reconstruction for a Partially Collimated Whole Body PET Scanner.

Partially collimated PET systems have less collimation than conventional 2-D systems and have been shown to offer count rate improvements over 2-D and 3-D systems. Despite this potential, previous efforts have not established image-based improvements with partial collimation and have not customized the reconstruction method for partially collimated data. This work presents an image reconstruction method tailored for partially collimated data.

Optimization of noise equivalent count rate performance for a partially collimated PET scanner by varying the number of septa.

We present a simulation study of the global count-rate performance of a positron emission tomography (PET) scanner with different levels of partial collimation to maximize the noise equivalent count rate for whole-body PET imaging. We achieve partial collimation by removing different numbers of septal rings from the standard 2-D septa set for the GE Advance PET scanner. System behavior is studied with a photon tracking simulation package, which we modify to enable the production of random coincidences.

Estimating Live-Time for New PET Scanner Configurations.

We present the derivation of a live-time model for predicting count rates in computer simulations of PET scanners. Computer models are frequently used to investigate new PET scanner configurations, but they typically do not account for the count losses caused by scanner-specific electronics and processing. The live-time fraction depends strongly on the photon flux incident on the detector.

Simulations of the Effect of Collimation on Count Rates of an LSO PET System.

We present a simulation study of the effect of different degrees of collimation on countrate performance of a hypothetical PET scanner with LSO crystals. The simulated scanner is loosely based on the geometry of the Siemens Biograph Hi-Rez scanner.System behavior is studied with a photon tracking simulation package (SimSET).

Count-Rate Performance of the Discovery STE PET Scanner Using Partial Collimation.

We investigated the use of partial collimation on a clinical PET scanner by removing septa from conventional 2D collimators. The goal is to improve noise equivalent count-rates (NEC) compared to 2D and 3D scans for clinically relevant activity concentrations. We evaluated two cases: removing half of the septa (2.