Characterization of time of flight and resolution modeling on image quality in positron emission tomography

Time-of-flight (TOF) and resolution modeling (RM) algorithms are frequently used in clinical PET images, and inclusion of these corrections should measurably improve image quality. We quantified the effects of these correction algorithms on reconstructed images via the following metrics: recovery coefficients (RCs), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), noise-power spectrum (NPS), modulation transfer function (MTF), and the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of a point source. The goal of this experiment was to assess the effects of the correction algorithms when applied singly or together. Two different phantom tests were performed and analyzed by custom software. FWHM and MTF were measured using capillary tube point sources, while RCs, CNR, and NPS were measured using an image quality body phantom. Images were reconstructed with both TOF and RM, only TOF, only RM, or neither correction. The remaining reconstruction parameters used the standard clinical protocol. RM improved RCs, FWHM, and MTF, without increasing overall noise significantly. TOF improves CNR for small objects FWHM or MTF but did not decrease noise. RCs were not statistically improved by enabling these algorithms. Inclusion of both correction algorithms in image reconstruction provides an overall improvement to all metrics relative to the uncorrected image, but not by a significant margin in multiple aspects.