Scatter Correction for Positron Emission Mammography using an Estimation of Trues Method Approach

ClearPEM is a high resolution PET scanner dedicated to breast imaging that offers good lesion detectability and localization. To obtain quantitative images, corrections need to be applied to the acquired data, but since there are no transmission sources available, only emission data can be used. In this paper we present the application of a method for scatter correction - Estimation of Trues Method (ETM) - to data acquired with the ClearPEM scanner. This approach is based on the energy of the detected photons and can be implemented in the image domain. Also, it is applicable in cases where a large amount of activity exists outside the field of view and does not require transmission information. ETM is being validated with real data from acquisitions with gelatin phantoms, showing improvements in image contrast and thus potentially increasing the detectability of lesions.