Positron emission tomography imaging system and method

#This application claims priority of Chinese Application No. 201710308089.1 filed on May 4, 2017, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

#The present disclosure generally relates to the field of imaging technology, and more particularly, to a system and method for efficient scanning and image reconstruction in positron emission tomography (PET).

#Positron emission tomography (PET) is a nuclear medicine functional imaging technique that is used to observe metabolic processes in a body. Specifically, in PET studies, a biologically active molecule carrying a radioactive tracer is first introduced into a patient's body. The imaging system then detects gamma rays (also referred to as PET data) emitted by the tracer and constructs a three-dimensional image of the tracer concentration within the body by analyzing the detected signals. Because the biologically active molecules used in PET studies are natural substrates of metabolism at a target organ or tissue, PET can aid the evaluation of the physiology (functionality) and/or anatomy (structure) of the target organ or tissue, as well as its biochemical properties. Changes in these properties of the target organ or tissue may provide information for the identification of the onset of a disease process before any anatomical changes relating to the disease become detectable by other diagnostic tests, such as computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

#The present disclosure is further described in terms of exemplary embodiments. These exemplary embodiments are described in detail with reference to the drawings. These embodiments are non-limiting exemplary embodiments, in which like reference numerals represent similar structures throughout the several views of the drawings, and wherein:

#FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary PET system according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

#FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an exemplary computing device on which the imaging system can be implemented according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

#In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth by way of examples in order to provide a thorough understanding of the relevant disclosure. However, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present disclosure may be practiced without such details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, systems, components, and/or circuitry have been described at a relatively high-level, without detail, in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring aspects of the present disclosure. Various modifications to the disclosed embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments and applications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Thus, the present disclosure is not limited to the embodiments shown, but to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the claims.

#It will be understood that the term “system,” “engine,” “unit,” “module,” and/or “block” used herein are one method to distinguish different components, elements, parts, section or assembly of different level in ascending order. However, the terms may be displaced by another expression if they may achieve the same purpose.

#Generally, the word “module,” “unit,” or “block,” as used herein, refers to logic embodied in hardware or firmware, or to a collection of software instructions. A module, a unit, or a block described herein may be implemented as software and/or hardware and may be stored in any type of non-transitory computer-readable medium or another storage device. In some embodiments, a software module/unit/block may be compiled and linked into an executable program. It will be appreciated that software modules can be callable from other modules/units/blocks or from themselves, and/or may be invoked in response to detected events or interrupts. Software modules/units/blocks configured for execution on computing devices (e.g., processor 210 as illustrated in FIG. 2) may be provided on a computer-readable medium, such as a compact disc, a digital video disc, a flash drive, a magnetic disc, or any other tangible medium, or as a digital download (and can be originally stored in a compressed or installable format that needs installation, decompression, or decryption prior to execution). Such software code may be stored, partially or fully, on a storage device of the executing computing device, for execution by the computing device. Software instructions may be embedded in firmware, such as an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM). It will be further appreciated that hardware modules/units/blocks may be included of connected logic components, such as gates and flip-flops, and/or can be included of programmable units, such as programmable gate arrays or processors. The modules/units/blocks or computing device functionality described herein may be implemented as software modules/units/blocks, but may be represented in hardware or firmware. In general, the modules/units/blocks described herein refer to logical modules/units/blocks that may be combined with other modules/units/blocks or divided into sub-modules/sub-units/sub-blocks despite their physical organization or storage.