Mr scan selection for pet attenuation correction

A computer program product for attenuation correction for a positron emission tomography (PET) system, the computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for execution by one or more processors of a computing system to cause the computing system to perform operations, the operations comprising:

• obtaining PET scan data representative of a volume scanned by the PET system;
• obtaining magnetic resonance (MR) diagnostic scan data of the volume, the diagnostic MR scan data being acquired during acquisition of the PET scan data by the PET system;
• obtaining a plurality of MR attenuation correction (MR-AC) scan data sets representative of the volume, each MR-AC scan data set being acquired during the acquisition of the PET scan data by the PET system when the diagnostic MR scan data is not being acquired;
• detecting motion of the volume that occurred during the acquisition of the PET scan data based on a spatial alignment assessment of the plurality of MR-AC scan data sets, the PET scan data, the diagnostic MR scan data, or combinations thereof;
• determining attenuation correction data from the plurality of MR-AC scan data sets based on the detected motion for alignment of the attenuation correction data and the PET scan data;
• and
• correcting the PET scan data with the attenuation correction data.

A data processing system for attenuation correction for a positron emission tomography (PET) system, the data processing system comprising:

• a data store in which PET scan data representative of a volume scanned by the PET system is stored, and in which a plurality of magnetic resonance (MR) attenuation correction (MR-AC) scan data sets representative of the volume are stored, each MR-AC scan data set being acquired during acquisition of the PET scan data by the PET system when diagnostic MR scan data is not being acquired;
• and
• a processor coupled to the data store and configured to detect motion of the volume that occurred during the acquisition of the PET scan data based on a spatial alignment assessment of the plurality of MR scan data sets, the PET scan data, or the plurality of MR scan data sets and the PET scan data;
• wherein the processor is further configured to determine attenuation correction data from the plurality of MR scan data sets based on the detected motion for alignment of the attenuation correction data and the PET scan data;
• and
• wherein the processor is further configured to correct the PET scan data with the attenuation correction data.