Partial Volume Correction Strategies in PET

In the early days of PET, the partial volume effect (PVE) was identified as a serious factor affecting image quality and limiting the accuracy of quantitative analysis. Because of the limited spatial resolution of clinical PET systems, the images are blurred by the system response so that smaller objects appear larger. Although the total number of counts is preserved, they are distributed over a larger volume. This article describes the various partial volume correction strategies used in PET and summarizes their clinical and research applications.