Patent ID: 7848559

Claim:
A method for reconstructing a nuclear medical image from TOF-PET imaging data, comprising the steps of: obtaining three dimensional TOF-PET data from a PET scanner represented by the following equation: p ⁡ ( t , s , ϕ , z , δ ) = 1 + δ 2 ⁢ ∫ - ∞ ∞ ⁢ ⁢ ⅆ l ⁢ ⁢ f ⁡ ( s ⁢ ⁢ cos ⁢ ⁢ ϕ - l ⁢ ⁢ sin ⁢ ⁢ ϕ , s ⁢ ⁢ sin ⁢ ⁢ ϕ + l ⁢ ⁢ cos ⁢ ⁢ ϕ , z + l ⁢ ⁢ δ ) ⁢ h ⁡ ( t - l ⁢ 1 + δ 2 ) ; storing said TOF-PET data in a plurality of TOF time bins, each bin corresponding to a time difference value of photons arriving at opposite detectors of said PET scanner; estimating, for each time bin and separately for each axial plane (s,φ) a two dimensional TOF sinogram of each transaxial slice z within an axial field of view of said scanner, based on the following relation: p ⁡ ( t 0 , s , ϕ , z 0 , 0 ) = p ⁡ ( t 0 ⁢ 1 + δ 1 2 , s , ϕ , z 0 - t 0 ⁢ δ 1 , δ 1 ) - σ 2 ⁢ ∫ 0 δ 1 ⁢ ⁢ ⅆ δ ⁡ ( 1 1 + δ 2 ⁢ ∂ 2 ⁢ p ∂ z ⁢ ∂ t - δ 1 + δ 2 ⁢ ∂ 2 ⁢ p ∂ t 2 ) ⁢ ( t 0 ⁢ 1 + δ 2 , s , ϕ , z 0 - t 0 ⁢ δ , δ ) ; and reconstructing an image from said estimated two dimensional TOF sinograms using a two dimensional TOF reconstruction algorithm.