Factors affecting accuracy and precision in PET volume imaging.

Volume imaging positron emission tomographic (PET) scanners with no septa and a large axial acceptance angle offer several advantages over multiring PET scanners. A volume imaging scanner combines high sensitivity with fine axial sampling and spatial resolution. The fine axial sampling minimizes the partial volume effect, which affects the measured concentration of an object. Even if the size of an object is large compared to the slice spacing in a multiring scanner, significant variation in the concentration is measured as a function of the axial position of the object. With a volume imaging scanner, it is necessary to use a three-dimensional reconstruction algorithm in order to avoid variations in the axial resolution as a function of the distance from the center of the scanner. In addition, good energy resolution is needed in order to use a high energy threshold to reduce the coincident scattered radiation.