Improving the spatial resolution and image noise in densily pixilated detectors for positron emission mammography

In positron emission mammography, the use of planar detector limits the angular coverage and introduces more noise than conventional positron emission tomography.;We then studied noise in the peripheral region of the images. The solid angle function is an image uniformity correction function. The solid angle function is the last thing applied before the images are displayed. We postulate that image quality should improve by re-ordering the solid angle function and the smoothing algorithm.;These two techniques have shown an improvement in contrast, resolution, and noise. An ROC curve analysis showed an improvement of 9.5 % in accuracy.;We first studied the sampling artifacts introduced from the use of discrete crystals. The images are reconstructed by back-projecting lines of response from and to the centroid of interaction within the crystal. We postulate that the sampling artifact should be reduced by allowing the lines of response to shift away from the centroid towards the next most probable crystal element.