Configurable coincidence pairing and filtering system and method for positron emission tomography

A system for collecting and processing positron emission tomography (PET) information, comprising:

• a plurality of detector modules arranged in a plurality of detector regions;
• a plurality of regional event collectors corresponding to the plurality of detector regions, each regional event collector configured to receive PET event information from each detector module in the corresponding detector region;
• and
• a global event collector configured to receive (1) the PET event information from each of the plurality of regional event collectors, the PET event information including energy information and crystal position information of a single PET event, and (2) non-detector event information, the global event collector further configured to generate an event list that includes (i) a PET event entry, the PET event entry including a fine time stamp, the energy information, and the crystal position information, and (ii) a non-detector event entry that includes the received non-detector event information, and to transmit the generated event list to a computer for off-line processing.

A computer-readable medium storing a computer program that when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform a method of processing positron emission tomography (PET) information obtained from a PET detector having a plurality of detector regions, each detector region having at least one detector module and a corresponding regional collector, the method comprising:

• receiving PET event information for a single PET event, the PET event information including energy information and crystal position information of the single PET event;
• receiving non-detector event information;
• generating an event list that includes (1) a PET event entry, the PET event entry including a fine time stamp, the energy information, and the crystal position information, and (2) a non-detector event entry that includes the received non-detector event information;
• and
• transmitting the generated event list to a computer for off-line processing.