Patent ID: 9241678
Filing Date: 2016-01-26
CPC Classification: A61B,G16B

Claim Text:
1. A method of estimating random events in positron emission tomography (PET) list mode data for improved reconstruction of a PET image, the method comprising: obtaining time-of-flight (TOF) list mode count data that includes TOF information; converting the obtained TOF list mode count data into four-dimensional (4D) non-TOF raw sinogram count data, without using the TOF information, wherein the 4D non-TOF raw sinogram count data includes random count values; interpolating the 4D non-TOF raw sinogram count data to generate 4D non-TOF interpolated sinogram count data; low-pass filtering the 4D non-TOF interpolated sinogram count data to remove noise; converting the low-pass filtered 4D non-TOF interpolated sinogram count data into filtered 4D non-TOF raw sinogram count data; generating, by a processing circuit, five-dimensional (5D) TOF raw sinogram count data from the filtered 4D non-TOF raw sinogram count data; and reconstructing, by the processing circuit, the PET image using the 5D TOF raw sinogram count data.