Alignment of cardiac PET attenuation images

Methods for fast, accurate alignment of activity images are discussed. The solution investigated involves use of very short attenuation scans to perform alignment. Sets of cardiac PET emission images may be aligned to other sets of PET emission images on the same patient by aligning their associated attenuation images. For alignment of multiple sets of emission data during an extended study encompassing several emission acquisitions, short pseudo attenuation scans may be acquired to allow alignment of subsequent emission data. These preliminary data indicate that five minute attenuation scans can be inserted into a study for quick and accurate alignment of cardiac regions of PET emission scans. Alignment in x, y, and z was successful with this limited data set. >