Influence of Rotation Increments on Imaging Performance for a Rotatory Dual-Head PET System

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Nuclear Medicine
• Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

Background:

• Optimizing rotation increments is essential for rotatory dual-head PET systems.
• Existing methods for determining rotation increments require further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To simulate and analyze the impact of different rotation increments on PET imaging performance.
• To propose a reconstruction flowchart incorporating a system response matrix (SRM) and interpolation.
• To evaluate image quality using multiple quantitative metrics.

Main Methods:

• Simulated a rotatory dual-head PET system to assess various rotation increments.
• Developed a reconstruction flowchart using a precalculated SRM and interpolation.
• Quantified image quality using spatial resolution, NMSE, PSNR, CNR, and SSIM.

Main Results:

• 60° rotation increments with bilinear interpolation improved resolution, PSNR, NMSE, and SSIM.
• 90° rotation increments demonstrated superior CNR and flatter reconstructed images.
• Both 60° and 90° increments are viable, with selection depending on specific application needs.

Conclusions:

• Rotation increment choice significantly impacts PET image quality.
• 60° and 90° increments offer distinct advantages for different imaging applications.
• The proposed reconstruction method provides a framework for optimizing PET imaging protocols.