Attenuation correction of four dimensional (4D) PET using phase-correlated 4D-computed tomography.

The image quality in a conventional positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) scanner is degraded by respiratory motion because of erroneous attenuation correction when three-dimensional image acquisition is used. To overcome this problem, time-resolved data acquisition (4D) is required. For this, a Siemens Biograph 16 PET/CT scanner has been modified and its normal capability has been extended to a true 4D-PET/4D-CT imaging device including phase-correlated attenuation correction. To verify the correct functionality of this device, experiments on a respiratory motion phantom that allowed movement in two dimensions have been performed. The measurements showed good spatial correlation as well as good time synchronization between the PET and CT data. Furthermore, the motion pattern of the phantom and the shape of the activity distribution have been examined, and the volume of the reconstructed PET images has been analyzed. The results demonstrate the feasibility of such a procedure, and we therefore recommend that 4D-PET data should be reconstructed using 4D-CT data, which can be acquired on the same machine.