Patent Document ID: 10022097
Application ID: 14739929
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A medical imaging system for reconstructing quantitative dynamic nuclear medicine images of a subject comprising: a three dimensional positron emission tomography (3D PET) scanner that: performs scans of the subject at each of multiple bed positions, each scan being of only a sub-portion of the subject that is within an axial length covered by the scanner; generates dynamic list-mode PET data that: represents a total number of photon pairs arriving at each of multiple detector pairs in the 3D PET scanner; and is organized in a list of elements, each element in the list including a detector pair index and an arrival time for each detected photon pair; and acquires PET data using a dynamic PET protocol with at least two scans at each of the multiple bed positions; a data processing system that: reconstructs Patlak slope and intercept images of the subject over an axial length of the subject that exceeds the axial length of each scan of the subject by optimizing a penalized likelihood function using the list-mode PET data from at least two scans of the subject at each of the multiple bed positions, the penalized likelihood function including: a model for the 3D PET scanner and for statistical distribution of noise in the data from multiple bed positions; and a numerical penalty function; and stores the reconstructed Patlak slope and intercept images in a storage device or displays the reconstructed Patlak slope and intercept images on a display system.