Reconstruction of PET images with a compressed Monte Carlo based system matrix - a comparison to other Monte Carlo based algorithms

A new method to compress the system matrix of a PET scanner calculated by Monte Carlo (MC) simulations is introduced. The proposed method reduces the size of the matrix drastically and allows a considerable reduction in the number of simulated particles. The images reconstructed with such a compressed matrix are compared to images reconstructed with other MC based algorithms, namely the dual-matrix algorithm and the full-matrix algorithm (reconstruction using the uncompressed MC matrix).