Using time-of-flight to detect and correct misalignment in PET/CT imaging

1. A positron emission tomography (PET) image reconstruction device comprising:

an electronic processor; and

a non-transitory storage medium storing instructions readable and executable by the electronic processor to reconstruct PET imaging data having TOF localization by operations including:

performing a TOF image reconstruction on the PET imaging data to produce a TOF reconstructed image wherein the TOF image reconstruction utilizes the TOF localization of the PET imaging data;

performing a non-TOF image reconstruction on the PET imaging data to produce a non-TOF reconstructed image wherein the non-TOF image reconstruction does not utilize the TOF localization of the PET imaging data;

computing a comparison image indicative of differences between the TOF reconstructed image and the non-TOF reconstructed image;

determining an adjustment for the TOF image reconstruction based on the comparison image; and

performing the TOF image reconstruction on the PET imaging data with the determined adjustment to produce an adjusted TOF reconstructed image.

2. The PET image reconstruction device of claim 1 wherein the TOF image reconstruction employs an attenuation map, the non-TOF image reconstruction employs the attenuation map, and the adjustment comprises a spatial adjustment of the attenuation map including at least one of a spatial shift of the attenuation map and a spatial rotation of the attenuation map.

3. The PET image reconstruction device of claim 2 wherein the determining of the spatial adjustment of the attenuation map includes:

detecting a broadened outline of an image feature in the comparison image; and

determining the spatial adjustment based on the detected broadened outline.

4. The PET image reconstruction device of claim 1 wherein the TOF image reconstruction employs an attenuation map, the non-TOF image reconstruction employs the attenuation map, and the adjustment comprises replacing a portion of the attenuation map corresponding to a difference identified in the comparison image with an attenuation correction derived from the PET imaging data.

5. The PET image reconstruction device of claim 1 wherein:

the performing of TOF image reconstruction on the PET imaging data includes performing a TOF image reconstruction on a portion of the PET imaging data having high resolution TOF localization to produce a high resolution TOF reconstructed image and performing a TOF image reconstruction on a portion of the PET imaging data having coarse resolution TOF localization to produce a coarse resolution TOF reconstructed image; and

computing the comparison image includes computing an image R1+(R3−R2) wherein R2 denotes the non-TOF reconstructed image.

6. The PET image reconstruction device of claim 1 further comprising:

a display; and

at least one user input device;

wherein the determining of the adjustment for the TOF image reconstruction ( 30 ) includes displaying the comparison image on the display and receiving the adjustment via the at least one user input device.

7. A positron emission tomography (PET) imaging device comprising:

a time of flight (TOF) PET imaging data acquisition device configured to acquire PET imaging data having TOF localization;

a PET image reconstruction device as set forth in claim 1 ; and

a display operatively connected with the PET image reconstruction device to display the adjusted TOF reconstructed image.

8. A non-transitory storage medium storing instructions readable and executable by an electronic processor to process positron emission tomography (PET) imaging data having time of flight (TOF) localization by processing operations comprising:

performing a TOF image reconstruction on the PET imaging data to produce a TOF reconstructed image wherein the TOF image reconstruction utilizes the TOF localization of the PET imaging data and includes attenuation correction using an attenuation map;

performing a non-TOF image reconstruction on the PET imaging data to produce a non-TOF reconstructed image wherein the non-TOF image reconstruction does not utilize the TOF localization of the PET imaging data and includes attenuation correction using the attenuation map;

computing a comparison image indicative of differences between the TOF reconstructed image and the non-TOF reconstructed image; and

identifying an error in the TOF reconstructed image using the comparison image.

9. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 8 wherein the identified error includes a spatial misalignment of the attenuation map respective to the PET imaging data.

10. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 8 wherein the identifying includes:

detecting a broadened outline of an image feature in the comparison image; and

identifying a spatial misalignment of the attenuation map respective to the PET imaging data based on the detected broadened outline.

11. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 10 wherein the identifying further includes identifying a direction of the spatial misalignment of the attenuation map respective to the PET imaging data based on position of the detected broadened outline relative to the image feature.

12. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 10 wherein the identifying further includes identifying a magnitude of the spatial misalignment of the attenuation map respective to the PET imaging data based on a breadth of the detected broadened outline.

13. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 9 wherein the processing operations further include:

correcting the identified spatial misalignment of the attenuation map to generate a corrected attenuation map; and

repeating the TOF image reconstruction including attenuation correction using the corrected attenuation map to produce an improved TOF reconstructed image.

14. The non-transitory storage medium of claim 8 wherein:

the performing of TOF image reconstruction on the PET imaging data includes performing a TOF image reconstruction on a portion of the PET imaging data having high resolution TOF localization to produce a high resolution TOF reconstructed image and performing a TOF image reconstruction on a portion of the PET imaging data having coarse resolution TOF localization to produce a coarse resolution TOF reconstructed image; and

computing the comparison image includes computing an image combining the high resolution TOF reconstructed image, the non-TOF reconstructed image, and the coarse resolution TOF reconstructed image.

15. A method of processing positron emission tomography (PET) imaging data having time of flight (TOF) localization, the method comprising:

performing a TOF image reconstruction on the PET imaging data to produce a TOF reconstructed image wherein the TOF image reconstruction utilizes the TOF localization of the PET imaging data and includes attenuation correction using an attenuation map;

performing a non-TOF image reconstruction on the PET imaging data to produce a non-TOF reconstructed image wherein the non-TOF image reconstruction does not utilize the TOF localization of the PET imaging data and includes attenuation correction using the attenuation map;

identifying an error in the TOF reconstructed image based on a comparison of the TOF reconstructed image and the non-TOF reconstructed image; and

at least one of (i) displaying the error on a display and (ii) correcting the error and repeating the TOF image reconstruction to produce an improved TOF reconstructed image;

wherein the TOF image reconstruction, the non-TOF image reconstruction, and the identifying are performed by an electronic processor.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the identifying comprises identifying a spatial misalignment of the attenuation map respective to the PET imaging data.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the identifying includes:

computing a comparison image indicative of differences between the TOF reconstructed image and the non-TOF reconstructed image;

detecting a broadened outline of an image feature in the comparison image; and

identifying the spatial adjustment based on the detected broadened outline.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the identifying further includes identifying a direction of the spatial misalignment of the attenuation map respective to the PET imaging data based on position of the detected broadened outline relative to the image feature.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the identifying further includes identifying a magnitude of the spatial misalignment of the attenuation map respective to the PET imaging data based on a breadth of the detected broadened outline.

20. The method of claim 16 wherein the displaying or correcting includes repeating the TOF image reconstruction with the attenuation map corrected for the identified spatial misalignment to generate an improved TOF reconstructed image.