Attenuation correction for awake non-human primate PET using transmission data from anesthetized studies

Introduction: The Focus 220 has been adapted for awake non-human primate (NHP) PET neuroreceptor imaging via a custom designed lifttilter to raise and rotate the scanner. The scanner is tilted forward 45° while the monkey sits in a custom designed chair and is tilted backward ∼35° to position the brain within the scanner field-of-view (FOV). However, acquiring a transmission scan may not be feasible: 1) our approach uses no head restraint so motion correction of awake transmission data would be required, 2) the NHP must acclimate to the noise as the point source travels around its head, and 3) minimizing total scan time will provide better scan performance. The aim of this study is to develop an algorithm to use transmission datasets acquired under anesthesia for attenuation correction (AC) in awake emission scans in the same animal. Here, we test the algorithm using emission data with matched attenuation images from anesthetized scans.