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Focus on time-of-flight PET: the benefits of improved time resolution

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An Erratum to this article was published on 23 February 2011

Abstract

TOF PET is characterized by a better trade-off between contrast and noise in the image. This property is enhanced in more challenging operating conditions, allowing for example shorter examinations or low counts, successful scanning of larger patients, low uptake, visualization of smaller lesions, and incomplete data sampling. In this paper, the correlation between the time resolution of a TOF PET scanner and the improvement in signal-to-noise in the image is introduced and discussed. A set of performance advantages is presented which include better image quality, shorter scan times, lower dose, higher spatial resolution, lower sensitivity to inconsistent data, and the opportunity for new architectures with missing angles. The recent scientific literature that reports the first experimental evidence of such advantages in oncology clinical data is reviewed. Finally, the directions for possible improvement of the time resolution of the present generation of TOF PET scanners are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Harold Rothfuss for his help with the Geant4 simulation. I also thank David Townsend for providing patient images, Joel Karp and Cristina Lois for Figs. 5 and 6, and Bernard Bendriem for helpful discussions and advice.

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None.

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  1. Siemens Healthcare, Molecular Imaging, 810 Innovation Drive, Knoxville, TN, 37932, USA

    Maurizio Conti

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  1. Maurizio Conti
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Correspondence to Maurizio Conti.

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An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00259-011-1763-7

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Conti, M. Focus on time-of-flight PET: the benefits of improved time resolution. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 38, 1147–1157 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-010-1711-y

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