Patent ID: 8269177

Claim:
A method for producing a PET image of a tissue using a PET scanner, the scanner comprising a plurality of scintillation crystals and a plurality of detectors, the method comprising: forming a first crystal group including a first subset of the plurality of crystals; forming a second crystal group including a second subset of the plurality of crystals, wherein crystals comprising the first crystal group are different from crystals comprising the second crystal group; converting a first beam striking one or more crystals of the first crystal group to a first electrical signal; converting a second beam striking one or more crystals of the second crystal group to a second electrical signal, wherein the second beam is scattered from the first beam; determining one or both of a first and a second timing relationship, wherein the first timing relationship is a time interval between a value of the first electrical signal and a time reference, and the second timing relationship is a time interval between a value of the second electrical signal and the time reference; correcting the second electrical signal to produce a corrected second electrical signal using a correction factor derived from at least one of the first and the second timing relationships to compensate for energy in the second signal scattered from the first signal; and creating an image of the tissue using the corrected second electrical signal.