Title :
Small animal PET with a clinical PET/CT: Optimizing image quality with MAP reconstruction and super-resolution
Author :
DiFilippo, Frank P. ; Yanguang Lin ; Bing Bai ; Leahy, Richard M.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Nucl. Med., Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA
fDate :
Oct. 27 2012-Nov. 3 2012
Abstract :
Previous work has shown that super-resolution (SR) can significantly improve image quality of small animal images acquired on a clinical PET/CT. Another approach is to utilize an optimized image reconstruction algorithm that is better suited for small animal imaging. We investigate improvements in the quality of phantom and animal images using maximum a posteriori (MAP) iterative reconstruction and SR compared to the scanner workstation´s native reconstruction. Significant gains in image quality were obtained with MAP reconstruction and were attributed to a finer voxel size and a more accurate projector model. SR offered similar improvement when applied to native reconstruction. Additional gain in image quality was obtained when combining the two techniques (applying SR to MAP-reconstructed images). In phantom scans, combined MAP+SR enabled 2.4mm hot rods and cold rods to be visualized.
Keywords :
image reconstruction; image resolution; iterative methods; maximum likelihood estimation; medical image processing; phantoms; positron emission tomography; MAP iterative reconstruction; MAP reconstruction; animal image quality; clinical PET-CT; cold rods; computed tomography; hot rods; image superresolution; maximum a posteriori iterative reconstruction; optimized image reconstruction algorithm; phantom image quality; phantom scans; positron emission tomography; projector model; size 2.4 mm; small animal PET; small animal imaging; voxel size;
Conference_Titel :
Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference (NSS/MIC), 2012 IEEE
Conference_Location :
Anaheim, CA
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4673-2028-3
DOI :
10.1109/NSSMIC.2012.6551861
