The Effects of Transmission Source Speed and Design on Emission Image Quality Using Local Statistical Noise Estimation

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is a medical imaging technique based on the detection of gamma radiation. Noise in PET Is primarily due to low counting statistics in the acquired data. Several corrections must be applied to the raw data to form quantitatively accurate images; these corrections should add as little noise as possible to the Images. The correction for the attenuation of photons through the subject contributes more noise potential than other corrections. This thesis demonstrates a new method for improving statistical uniformity of image data through improving the attenuation correction technique by varying the speed of an orbiting rod source during the transmission scan to match the subject\u27s shape as positioned in the imaging field of view. This thesis demonstrates this improvement by extending the concept of noise equivalent counts through reconstruction of all data elements