Image-reconstruction of data from SUPER PETT I: A first-generation time-of-flight positron-emission tomograph

A new image-reconstruction algorithm for time-of-flight (TOF) assisted positron-emission tomography is presented. This linear algorithm differs from previously published linear algorithms in the way the angular information of the measurements is used. The needed computations are reduced by coalescing data having angles within a range into a smaller number of ''group'' angles. This angle-reduction is made possible by the additional TOF measurement. It is shown that in the limit as the number of groups is very large this reduced-angle weighting algorithm is the same as the confidence-weighting algorithm. Similarly, if the data are grouped into a single angular range, the new algorithm is the same as the most-likely-position algorithm