Towards better normalization using photopeak monitoring from phantom/patient data in positron emission tomography (PET)

Abstract

It is essential to have properly tuned PET scanner and data correction methods to obtain accurate quantitative images. Quality control (QC) procedure ensures reproducible performance of a clinical PET scanner. The scope of this study is to observe the stability of a PET scanner by monitoring the 511keV photopeak during a phantom/patient scan at the crystal level. In addition, during the histogramming process of the listmode data, normalization including the crystal-based deadtime model can be implemented for accurate data correction. The method of peak monitoring could be used to adjust crystal sensitivity based on the exact condition of each crystal during the patient scan in the future. This would allow for a “personalized”, improved normalization, using data already available during the data acquisition.