Patent ID: 8000513

Claim:
A method for reconstructing a nuclear medical image from time-of-flight (TOF) positron emission tomography (PET) imaging data, the method comprising: acquiring measured three-dimensional (3D) TOF-PET data, including direct two-dimensional (2D) projections and oblique 3D projection data, from a PET scanner, the 3D TOF-PET data represented by the following parameterization: p ⁡ ( t , r , ϕ , z , δ ) = 1 + δ 2 ⁢ ∫ - ∞ ∞ ⁢ ⁢ ⅆ lh ⁡ ( t - l ⁢ 1 + δ 2 ) × f ⁡ ( r ⁢ ⁢ cos ⁢ ⁢ ϕ - l ⁢ ⁢ sin ⁢ ⁢ ϕ , r ⁢ ⁢ sin ⁢ ⁢ ϕ + l ⁢ ⁢ cos ⁢ ⁢ ϕ , z + 1 ⁢ δ ) ; presetting a model 3D image; generating a modeled 2D TOF sinogram from the model 3D image; generating a modeled 3D TOF sinogram from the 2D TOF sinogram based on the following relation in Fourier space: p ^ ⁡ ( μ , v , δ ) = 1 + δ 2 ⁢ h ^ ⁡ ( μ ) h ^ ⁡ ( μ ⁢ 1 + δ 2 - v ⁢ ⁢ δ ) ⁢ p ^ ⁡ ( μ ⁢ 1 + δ 2 - v ⁢ ⁢ δ , v , 0 ) ; correcting the model 3D image based on the 3D TOF sinogram; and providing the corrected model 3D image as the reconstructed nuclear medical image.