Brainmap: High Resolution Brain PET Imaging: Challenges and Opportunities
Richard Carson, Ph.D.
Yale University
The HRRT is the highest resolution human brain PET scanner in the world. Due to its high resolution and other unique aspects of its design (phoswich, panel gaps), the optimal use of this unique instrument depends on great care in the reconstruction. This presentation will discuss the cluster-based list mode reconstruction engine we have developed, called MOLAR. Unique components of this system include LOR-dependent point spread functions and event-by-event motion correction. Some unique applications that arise from this platform include quantification of carotid input functions and 4D reconstruction of kinetic parameters (direct from list mode data). Further, in using this system with various radiopharmaceuticals, optimizing the balance between resolution and noise poses ongoing challenges. The presentation will survey some of the challenges and opportunities that this platform and PET system have produced.
