A novel image reconstruction methodology based on inverse Monte Carlo analysis for positron emission tomography

A three dimensional (3D) reconstruction procedure for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) based on inverse Monte Carlo analysis is presented. PET is a medical imaging modality which employs a positron emitting radio-tracer to give functional images of an organ's metabolic activity. This makes PET an invaluable tool in the detection of cancer and for in-vivo biochemical measurements.; There are a number of analytical and iterative algorithms for image reconstruction of PET data. Analytical algorithms are computationally fast, but the assumptions intrinsic in the line integral model limit their accuracy. Iterative algorithms can apply accurate models for reconstruction and give improvements in image quality, but at an increased computational cost. These algorithms require the explicit calculation of the system response matrix, which may not be easy to calculate. This matrix gives the probability that a photon emitted from a certain source element will be detected in a particular detector line of response.; The “Three Dimensional Stochastic Sampling” (SS3D) procedure implements iterative algorithms in a manner that does not require the explicit calculation of the system response matrix. It uses Monte Carlo techniques to simulate the process of photon emission from a source distribution and interaction with the detector. This technique has the advantage of being able to model complex detector systems and also take into account the physics of gamma ray interaction within the source and detector systems, which leads to an accurate image estimate.; A series of simulation studies was conducted to validate the method using the Maximum Likelihood - Expectation Maximization (ML-EM) algorithm. The accuracy of the reconstructed images was improved by using an algorithm that required a priori knowledge of the source distribution. Means to reduce the computational time for reconstruction were explored by using parallel processors and algorithms that had faster convergence rates.; The SS3D method was then implemented on a novel detector which was built to fit into a breast X-ray biopsy machine. The design of the detector ruled out the possibility of image reconstruction by analytical methods, as its geometry does not fulfill a fundamental requirement of Fourier analysis. Prior to reconstruction by the SS3D method, the data from this detector were reconstructed by an approximate technique known as back-projection. The SS3D procedure gave accurate 3D reconstruction images of animal and patient data collected with this detector.