Strategies for Motion Tracking and Correction in PET

With the arrival of increasingly higher-resolution PET systems, small amounts of motion can cause significant blurring in the resulting images compared with the intrinsic resolution of the PET scanner. The authors review advanced correction methods for unwanted patient motion and for motion due to cardiac and respiratory cycles. A general theme in motion correction methods is the use of increasingly sophisticated software to make use of existing advanced hardware. In this sense, the field is open to future novel ideas (hardware and especially software) aimed at improving motion detection, characterization, and compensation.