Department of Statistics Seminar
North Carolina State University

presents

Dr. Bernard Mair

University of Florida

"Mathematical Representation for Detection Probabilities in Positron Emission Tomography"

ABSTRACT

In positron emission tomography (PET), a patient is given a radiopharmaceutical which emits positrons according to the amount absorbed in each region. The detected emissions are collected by a PET scanner and used to reconstruct images representing the various levels of metabolic activity in the patient. For decades, the Radon transform has been used as an approximate model for two dimensional (2D) PET. However, this model assumes that detector tubes are represented by lines, so fails to account for the spatially varying probability of detecting an emission from a point in the region of interest. In this talk, we will discuss essential aspects of modeling the PET emission-detection process and show that these probabilities can be precisely represented by solutions of Laplace's equation. We will also demonstrate that these results lead to new numerical methods for reconstructing PET images.

Friday, February, 01, 2002

3:35 - 4:35 pm

206 Cox Hall

Refreshments will be served on the second floor of Dabney Hall (left of Room 222) at 3:00 pm.