Ultra-fast list-mode reconstruction of short PET frames and example applications

Abstract

Standard clinical reconstructions usually require several minutes to complete, and this time is mostly independent of the duration of the data being reconstructed. Applications such as data-driven motion estimation, which require many short frames over the duration of the scan, become unfeasible with such long reconstruction times. In this work, we present an infrastructure whereby ultra-fast list-mode reconstructions of very short frames (#1 s) are performed. With this infrastructure, it is possible to have a dynamic series of frames that can be used for various applications, such as data-driven motion estimation, whole-body surveys, quick reconstructions of gated data to select the optimal gate for a given attenuation map, and, if the infrastructure runs simultaneously with the scan, real-time display of the reconstructed data during the scan and automated alerts for patient motion. Methods: A fast ray-tracing time-of-flight projector was implemented and parallelized. The reconstruction parameters were optimized to allow for fast performance: only a few iterations are performed, without point-spread-function modeling, and scatter correction is not used. The resulting reconstructions are thus not quantitative but are acceptable for motion estimation and visualization purposes. Data-driven motion can be estimated using image registration, with the resultant motion data being used in a fully motion-corrected list-mode reconstruction. Results: The infrastructure provided images that can be used for visualization and gating purposes and for motion estimation using image registration. Several case studies are presented, including data-driven motion estimation and correction for brain studies, abdominal studies in which respiratory and cardiac motion is visible, and a whole-body survey. Conclusion: The presented infrastructure provides the capability to quickly create a series of very short frames for PET data that can be used in a variety of applications.