PERFORMANCE OF THE FOURIER REBINNING ALGORITHM FOR PET WITH LARGE ACCEPTANCE ANGLES

The recently proposed Fourier rebinning (FORE) technique of 3D PET rec onstruction is investigated over a wide range of axial acceptance angl es. In this study we evaluate the performance of the FORE technique us ing spatial resolution, contrast and noise figures of merit and compar e reconstruction performance of the FORE (followed by multislice 2D re construction) to the 3D-RP technique for large-acceptance-angle data ( +/-26.25 degrees). Our results show that the FORE technique does not a ffect the transverse resolution. On the other hand the axial resolutio n using FORE deteriorates faster, compared with the 3D-RP, at large ra dii as the acceptance angle increases. Concerning the noise behaviour, we have found that filtering has better ability to suppress the noise in the FORE reconstruction, compared with the 3D-RP reconstruction, e specially in the slices near the edge of the axial field of view. Over all, the combination of good performance and fast reconstruction time makes the FORE technique a practical choice for 3D PET applications.