A positron emission tomography imaging device comprising: a PET detector array comprising detector pixels configured to acquire counts of oppositely directed 511 keV gamma ray pairs along lines of response (LORs); a computer; and a non-transitory storage medium storing instructions readable and executable by the computer to perform operations including: reconstructing the counts along the LORs to generate a reconstructed PET image (36, 46); and correcting the reconstructing for missing LORs which are missing due to dead detector pixels of the PET detector array by: estimating counts along the missing LORs by interpolating counts along LORs neighboring the missing LORs, characterized in that estimating of the counts along the missing LORs by interpolating counts along LORs neighboring the missing LORs comprises: performing a first interpolation pass in which counts along the missing LORs having at least a minimum number of neighboring LORs that are not missing are interpolated using only counts along LORs that are not missing; and performing at least one additional interpolation pass in which counts along the missing LORs having less than the minimum number of neighboring LORs that are not missing are interpolated using at least one of counts along LORs that are not missing and/or interpolated counts from a previous interpolation pass. a PET detector array comprising detector pixels configured to acquire counts of oppositely directed 511 keV gamma ray pairs along lines of response (LORs); a computer; and a non-transitory storage medium storing instructions readable and executable by the computer to perform operations including: reconstructing the counts along the LORs to generate a reconstructed PET image (36, 46); and correcting the reconstructing for missing LORs which are missing due to dead detector pixels of the PET detector array by: reconstructing the counts along the LORs to generate a reconstructed PET image (36, 46); and correcting the reconstructing for missing LORs which are missing due to dead detector pixels of the PET detector array by: estimating counts along the missing LORs by interpolating counts along LORs neighboring the missing LORs, characterized in that estimating of the counts along the missing LORs by interpolating counts along LORs neighboring the missing LORs comprises: performing a first interpolation pass in which counts along the missing LORs having at least a minimum number of neighboring LORs that are not missing are interpolated using only counts along LORs that are not missing; and performing at least one additional interpolation pass in which counts along the missing LORs having less than the minimum number of neighboring LORs that are not missing are interpolated using at least one of counts along LORs that are not missing and/or interpolated counts from a previous interpolation pass. performing a first interpolation pass in which counts along the missing LORs having at least a minimum number of neighboring LORs that are not missing are interpolated using only counts along LORs that are not missing; and performing at least one additional interpolation pass in which counts along the missing LORs having less than the minimum number of neighboring LORs that are not missing are interpolated using at least one of counts along LORs that are not missing and/or interpolated counts from a previous interpolation pass.