Attenuation correction in emission tomography taking into account the hardware parts that are actually present

A method for generating an attenuation correction map, to compensate imaging errors in emission tomography resulting from hardware parts present inside an imaging volume of an emission tomograph, comprising:

• (1.a) preparing or providing at least one 3-dimensional computer-aided design (CAD) model of the hardware parts being compensated;
• (1.b) converting required components of the CAD model into a 3-dimensional image data set into voxels on a predetermined grid and assigning a filling factor to each voxel;
• (1.c) pointwise multiplying the 3-dimensional image data set of each of the components with a respective known attenuation coefficient of the material that forms the respective component and a respective energy corresponding to an emission tomography radio tracer being used;
• and
• (1.d) super-imposing the 3-dimensional image data sets of all components of the hardware parts being compensated, to form at least one attenuation correction map.