Method and imaging system for compensating for location assignment errors in pet data occurring due to a cyclical motion of a patient

An image recording system comprising:

• a first image recording facility with a modality other than positron emission tomography (PET);
• a control computer configured to operate said first image recording facility to acquire three-dimensional training data from a patient, exhibiting a cyclical motion, situated in the imaging recording facility, in a plurality of different motion states of the cyclical motion;
• a processor provided with displacement data that describe a reference motion state, and said processor also being provided with said training data, and said processor being configured to determine model parameters of a statistical model that describes said cyclical motion, from deviations of said training data in said different motion states from said displacement data;
• said processor being configured to determine an assignment rule for assigning measurement values of at least one measurement signal, which can be recorded during a PET measurement procedure and which exhibit said motion states of said cyclical motion, to input parameters that describe an instance of said statistical model;
• a PET image recording facility;
• said control computer being configured to operate said PET image recording facility to acquire PET data and to assign measurement values to the PET data acquired at respective recording points in time during a PET measurement procedure corresponding to the PET measurement procedure used to determine said rule;
• said processor being configured to determine displacement data for said PET data by applying said assignment rule to said measurement values assigned to the PET data for said points in time;
• and
• said processor being configured to spatially displace said PET data according to said displacement data to obtain corrected PET data in which location assignment errors due to said cyclical motion are compensated, and to make the corrected PET data available in electronic form, as a data file, from said processor.

A non-transitory, computer-readable data storage medium encoded with programming instructions, said storage medium being loaded into a control and processing computer system of an image recording system, and said programming instructions causing said control and processing computer system to:

• operate an image recording facility with a modality other than PET to acquire three-dimensional training data from a patient, exhibiting a cyclical motion, situated in the imaging recording facility, in a plurality of different motion states of the cyclical motion;
• receive displacement data that describe a reference motion state and receive said training data, and determine model parameters of a statistical model that describes said cyclical motion, from deviations of said training data in said different motion states from said displacement data;
• determine an assignment rule for assigning measurement values of at least one measurement signal, which can be recorded during a PET measurement procedure and which exhibit said motion states of said cyclical motion, to input parameters that describe an instance of said statistical model;
• operate a PET image recording facility to acquire PET data and to assign measurement values to the PET data acquired at respective recording points in time during a PET measurement procedure corresponding to the PET measurement procedure used to determine said rule;
• determine displacement data for said PET data by applying said assignment rule to said measurement values assigned to the PET data for said points in time;
• and
• spatially displace said PET data according to said displacement data to obtain corrected PET data in which location assignment errors due to said cyclical motion are compensated, and make the corrected PET data available in electronic form, as a data file, from said processor.