Patent ID: 8384036

Claim:
In a Positron Emission Tomography (PET) system comprising a plurality of detectors, a method for determining the position of a radioactive source, the method comprising: detecting a scatter coincidence event, the event characterized by a full-energy photon detected at a first detector and partial-energy photon detected at a second detector of a PET camera; and measuring the time difference via time of flight between the time of arrival of the partial energy photon at the second detector and the time of arrival of the full energy photon at the first detector; measuring the energy of the partial-energy photon; determining a scattering point as a function of at least: the position of the first detector, the position of the second detector, the measured energy of the partial-energy photon, the expected energy of an unscattered photon, the mass of a scattering electron, and the speed of light; and determining the position of a radioactive PET source along a pseudo Line of Response (LOR) between the scatter point and the first detector as a function of at least: the distance between scatter point and the first detector, the distance between scatter point and the second detector, and the measured time difference, wherein the pseudo LOR comprises a broken line projection.