Modelling Random Coincidences in Positron Emission Tomography by Using Singles and Prompts: A Comparison Study

Josep F Oliver and M Rafecas

PLOS ONE, 2016, vol. 11, issue 9, 1-22

Abstract: Random coincidences degrade the image in Positron Emission Tomography, PET. To compensate for their degradation effects, the rate of random coincidences should be estimated. Under certain circumstances, current estimation methods fail to provide accurate results. We propose a novel method, “Singles–Prompts” (SP), that includes the information conveyed by prompt coincidences and models the pile–up. The SP method has the same structure than the well-known “Singles Rate” (SR) approach. Hence, SP can straightforwardly replace SR. In this work, the SP method has been extensively assessed and compared to two conventional methods, SR and the delayed window (DW) method, in a preclinical PET scenario using Monte–Carlo simulations. SP offers accurate estimates for the randoms rates, while SR and DW tend to overestimate the rates (∼10%, and 5%, respectively). With pile-up, the SP method is more robust than SR (but less than DW). At the image level, the contrast is overestimated in SR-corrected images, +16%, while SP produces the correct value. Spill–over is slightly reduced using SP instead of SR. The DW images values are similar to those of SP except for low-statistic scenarios, where DW behaves as if randoms were not compensated for. In particular, the contrast is reduced, −16%. In general, the better estimations of SP translate into better image quality.

Date: 2016
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0162096 (text/html)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id= ... 62096&type=printable (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0162096

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0162096

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in PLOS ONE from Public Library of Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by plosone ().