Performance evaluation of scatter modeling of the GPU-based “Tera-Tomo” 3D PET reconstruction

In positron emission tomography (PET), photon scattering inside the body causes significant blurring and quantification error in the reconstructed images. To solve this problem we have developed Monte Carlo (MC) based 3D PET reconstruction algorithms implemented on the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). Our implementation takes multiple Compton scattering into account without any significant additional cost. The performance of the scatter correction is evaluated using GATE simulation as well as by comparing reconstruction results of Tera-Tomo to the reference reconstruction implementation of the Philips Gemini TOF PET which applies attenuation correction and single scatter simulation (SSS) for scatter correction. The comparative reconstruction results are based on the NEMA NU2-2007 image quality phantom.