Model based scatter correction in three dimensions (positron emission tomography)

A method for approximating the mean of the distribution of scattered events in which only one of the two photons is scattered is presented. The technique uses emission images, transmission images, and the physics of Compton scatter to compute the estimate with a table-driven approach. Although implemented for use with scanners using interplane septa, the algorithm is three-dimensional in nature and can be easily extended for use with fully 3-D data. Preliminary phantom studies show good agreement between the estimated and experimental scatter distributions.<<ETX>>