阅读说明：本技术 康普顿散射事例恢复方法、pet系统及计算机可读存储介质 (Compton scattering case recovery method, PET system and computer readable storage medium ) 是由 吕新宇 于 2020-04-24 设计创作，主要内容包括：本申请涉及一种康普顿散射事例恢复方法、PET系统及计算机可读存储介质。其中,该方法包括：获取第一光电传感器阵列探测到的能量值,以及光电传感器阵列-闪烁晶体响应矩阵；根据光电传感器阵列-晶体响应矩阵,确定与第一光电传感器阵列探测到的能量值对应的、探测到光电效应事件的第一闪烁晶体的位置；根据第一闪烁晶体的位置和第一光电传感器阵列探测到的能量值,确定康普顿散射事例的第一作用点。通过本申请,以解决了相关技术中康普顿散射事例恢复精度低的问题,提高了康普顿散射事例恢复的精度。(The application relates to a Compton scattering case recovery method, a PET system and a computer readable storage medium. Wherein, the method comprises the following steps: acquiring an energy value detected by the first photosensor array and a photosensor array-scintillation crystal response matrix; determining a position of a first scintillation crystal detecting a photoelectric effect event corresponding to an energy value detected by the first photosensor array based on the photosensor array-crystal response matrix; a first point of action for the compton scattering case is determined based on the position of the first scintillation crystal and the amount of energy detected by the first photosensor array. By the aid of the method and the device, the problem of low recovery precision of the Compton scattering case in the related technology is solved, and the recovery precision of the Compton scattering case is improved.)

1. A method for recovering compton scattering instances, comprising:

acquiring an energy value detected by a first photosensor array and a photosensor array-scintillation crystal response matrix, wherein the photosensor array-scintillation crystal response matrix is used for representing the mapping relation between the energy value detected by the photosensor array and the position and deposition energy of a scintillation crystal for detecting a photoelectric effect event in one Compton scattering case;

determining a position of a first scintillation crystal detecting a photoelectric effect event corresponding to an energy value detected by the first photosensor array based on the photosensor array-crystal response matrix;

a first action point of a compton scattering case is determined based on the position of the first scintillating crystal and the energy value detected by the first photosensor array.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the photosensor array-scintillator crystal response matrix is trained, the training comprising:

acquiring an initial decoding image consisting of energy values of all Compton scattering cases detected by all photoelectric sensor arrays, performing energy filtering on the initial decoding image by using an energy window of a scintillation crystal to obtain a filtered decoding image, and filtering the filtered decoding image by using an Anger mask to obtain a decoding image conforming to the Anger mask;

screening out an energy value corresponding to each photoelectric effect event detected by each photoelectric sensor array as an effective energy value detected by each photoelectric sensor array according to the energy window of the scintillation crystal and a decoding graph conforming to the Anger mask, and recording the position of the scintillation crystal detecting each photoelectric effect event;

adjusting elements of the photosensor array-scintillation crystal response matrix according to the effective performance value and the position of the scintillation crystal of each photoelectric effect event corresponding to the effective performance value.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a first action point for a compton scattering case based on the position of the first scintillation crystal and the energy value detected by the first photosensor array comprises:

determining the first action point of a Compton scattering case according to a threshold range within which an energy value detected by the first photosensor array falls in the case that the number of the first scintillation crystals detecting a photoelectric effect event is plural;

wherein, in a case where a next-largest energy value of the energy values detected by the first photosensor array falls within a first threshold range, it is determined that a scintillation crystal of the first scintillation crystals corresponding to a largest energy value of the energy values detected by the first photosensor array is the first action point of a compton scattering case; determining that a scintillation crystal of the first scintillation crystal corresponding to a next highest energy value of the energy values detected by the first photosensor array is the first point of action for a Compton scattering event if a next highest energy value of the energy values detected by the first photosensor array falls within a second threshold range, wherein a maximum value of the first threshold range is less than a minimum value of the second threshold range.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining, from the photosensor array-crystal response matrix, a location of a first scintillation crystal that detects a photoelectric effect event that corresponds to an amount of energy detected by the first photosensor array comprises:

and calculating the position of the first scintillation crystal by adopting a maximum likelihood method.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein calculating the position of the first scintillation crystal using maximum likelihood comprises:

constructing an optimization problem for calculating the position of the scintillation crystal detecting the photoelectric event according to the radioactive element decay law and the photoelectric sensor array-crystal response matrix;

the optimization problem is solved to obtain the position of the scintillation crystal at which the photoelectric event was detected.

6. A PET system comprising detectors and a computer device, wherein the computer device comprises a memory, a processor and a computer program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, wherein the processor when executing the computer program implements the compton scattering instance recovery method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5.

7. The PET system of claim 6 wherein the detector includes an array of detector base units, wherein the detector base units include 4 photosensors and 9 scintillation crystals, wherein the 4 photosensors are arranged in a square array and the 9 scintillation crystals are arranged in a square array.

8. The PET system of claim 7, wherein the photosensor is SiPM.

9. The PET system of claim 7 wherein the detector comprises a plurality of blocks, wherein each block comprises 64 of the detector base units arranged in a square array.

10. A computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored which, when being executed by a processor, carries out the compton scattering instance recovery method of any of claims 1 to 5.

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of imaging devices, and more particularly, to a compton scattering case recovery method, a PET system, and a computer-readable storage medium.

Background

PET is the fastest developing imaging technology in the field of nuclear medicine nowadays, and is widely applied to clinical detection.

In a PET system, back-to-back 511keV single-energy photons, generated by annihilation of positive and negative electrons, interact with detectors at both ends, respectively, and are detected. The detector generally uses a scintillation crystal as a light conversion material, and 511keV gamma (gamma) photons and the crystal generate two response events: one is a photoelectric effect event, gamma photons are completely deposited by one-time collision, and a large amount of fluorescence photons are released; the other is a Compton scattering effect event, gamma photons collide with outer electrons of crystal atoms for multiple times, the energy is continuously reduced, the direction is continuously changed, and partial energy or all energy is finally deposited. If the scattered gamma photons are not identified or recovered, the sensitivity is lost, or the position judgment is wrong, and the energy precision is reduced.

FIG. 1a is a schematic diagram of gamma photons undergoing a photoelectric effect event in a scintillation crystal according to the related art, as shown in FIG. 1a, gamma photon 10 undergoing a single response event in scintillation crystal 11, i.e., a single photoelectric effect event, with complete deposition of energy. FIG. 1b is a schematic diagram of a gamma photon scattering event in a block according to the related art, as shown in FIG. 1b, the gamma photon energy is not completely deposited in the first scintillation crystal, and if not recovered, the second scintillation crystal is used as the action position, which may cause a position calculation error. FIG. 1c is a schematic diagram of a gamma photon scattering event occurring in an adjacent block according to the related art, as shown in FIG. 1c, the gamma photon energy is not completely deposited in a block of scintillation crystal, and if not recovered, sensitivity loss or energy information error is caused.

At present, the conventional method for recovering scattering events is to take 2 response events or more, for example, EA and EB respectively for energy and TA and TB respectively, if 2 response events occur within a given time window (e.g., 1 ns). The treatment is carried out in two cases: in the first case, if min (EA, EB) <70keV, the position where the action takes place (called the first point of action FI) is considered to be the crystal with the greater energy; in the second case, if min (EA, EB) ≧ 70keV, the first point of action is considered to be the crystal with the smaller energy. And after the FI crystal is judged, taking the total energy of EA + EB as the total energy of the photoelectric effect event. The time after recovery of the scattering was calculated from TA, TB. However, this method is simple and rough, and has low accuracy.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a recovery method of a Compton scattering case, a PET system and a computer readable storage medium, so as to at least solve the problem of low recovery precision of the Compton scattering case in the related art.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for recovering a compton scattering case, including:

acquiring an energy value detected by a first photosensor array and a photosensor array-scintillation crystal response matrix, wherein the photosensor array-scintillation crystal response matrix is used for representing the mapping relation between the energy value detected by the photosensor array and the position and deposition energy of a scintillation crystal for detecting a photoelectric effect event in one Compton scattering case;

determining a position of a first scintillation crystal detecting a photoelectric effect event corresponding to an energy value detected by the first photosensor array based on the photosensor array-crystal response matrix;

a first action point of a compton scattering case is determined based on the position of the first scintillating crystal and the energy value detected by the first photosensor array.

In some of these embodiments, the photosensor array-scintillator crystal response matrix is trained, the training process comprising:

acquiring an initial decoding image consisting of energy values of all Compton scattering cases detected by all photoelectric sensor arrays, performing energy filtering on the initial decoding image by using an energy window of a scintillation crystal to obtain a filtered decoding image, and filtering the filtered decoding image by using an Anger mask to obtain a decoding image conforming to the Anger mask;

screening out an energy value corresponding to each photoelectric effect event detected by each photoelectric sensor array as an effective energy value detected by each photoelectric sensor array according to the energy window of the scintillation crystal and a decoding graph conforming to the Anger mask, and recording the position of the scintillation crystal detecting each photoelectric effect event;

adjusting elements of the photosensor array-scintillation crystal response matrix according to the effective performance value and the position of the scintillation crystal of each photoelectric effect event corresponding to the effective performance value.

In some of these embodiments, determining a first point of action for a compton scattering case based on the position of the first scintillation crystal and the energy value detected by the first photosensor array includes:

determining the first action point of a Compton scattering case according to a threshold range within which an energy value detected by the first photosensor array falls in the case that the number of the first scintillation crystals detecting a photoelectric effect event is plural;

wherein, in a case where a next-largest energy value of the energy values detected by the first photosensor array falls within a first threshold range, it is determined that a scintillation crystal of the first scintillation crystals corresponding to a largest energy value of the energy values detected by the first photosensor array is the first action point of a compton scattering case; determining that a scintillation crystal of the first scintillation crystal corresponding to a next highest energy value of the energy values detected by the first photosensor array is the first point of action for a Compton scattering event if a next highest energy value of the energy values detected by the first photosensor array falls within a second threshold range, wherein a maximum value of the first threshold range is less than a minimum value of the second threshold range.

In some of these embodiments, determining, from the photosensor array-crystal response matrix, a location of a first scintillation crystal that detects a photoelectric effect event that corresponds to an energy value detected by the first photosensor array includes:

and calculating the position of the first scintillation crystal by adopting a maximum likelihood method.

In some of these embodiments, calculating the position of the first scintillation crystal using maximum likelihood includes:

constructing an optimization problem for calculating the position of the scintillation crystal detecting the photoelectric event according to the radioactive element decay law and the photoelectric sensor array-crystal response matrix;

the optimization problem is solved to obtain the position of the scintillation crystal at which the photoelectric event was detected.

In a second aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a PET system comprising detectors and a computer device, wherein the computer device comprises a memory, a processor and a computer program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, the processor implementing the compton scattering instance recovery method according to the first aspect when executing the computer program.

In some of these embodiments, the detector comprises an array of detector base units, wherein the detector base units comprise 4 photosensors and 9 scintillation crystals, wherein the 4 photosensors are arranged in a square array and the 9 scintillation crystals are arranged in a square array.

In some of these embodiments, the photosensor is a SiPM.

In some of these embodiments, the detector comprises a plurality of blocks, wherein each block comprises 64 of the detector base units arranged in a square array.

In a third aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, which when executed by a processor implements the compton scattering case recovery method according to the first aspect.

Compared with the related art, the compton scattering case recovery method, the PET system and the computer readable storage medium provided by the embodiments of the present application obtain the energy value detected by the first photosensor array and the photosensor array-scintillator crystal response matrix, where the photosensor array-scintillator crystal response matrix is used to represent the mapping relationship between the energy value detected by the photosensor array and the position and deposition energy of the scintillator crystal detecting the photoelectric effect event in one compton scattering case; determining a position of a first scintillation crystal detecting a photoelectric effect event corresponding to an energy value detected by the first photosensor array based on the photosensor array-crystal response matrix; according to the position of the first scintillation crystal and the energy value detected by the first photoelectric sensor array, the first action point of the Compton scattering case is determined, so that the problem of low recovery precision of the Compton scattering case in the related technology is solved, and the recovery precision of the Compton scattering case is improved.

The details of one or more embodiments of the application are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below to provide a more thorough understanding of the application.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the application and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of the application and together with the description serve to explain the application and not to limit the application. In the drawings:

FIG. 1a is a schematic illustration of gamma photons undergoing a photoelectric effect event within a scintillation crystal according to the related art;

FIG. 1b is a schematic diagram of gamma photon scattering effect events within a block according to the related art;

FIG. 1c is a schematic diagram of gamma photon scattering effect events at adjacent blocks according to the related art;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a PET system according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a Compton scattering case recovery method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a method of training a photosensor array-scintillation crystal response matrix according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of a Compton scattering case recovery method according to a preferred embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a block composition structure according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application more apparent, the present application will be described and illustrated below with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the present application and are not intended to limit the present application. All other embodiments obtained by a person of ordinary skill in the art based on the embodiments provided in the present application without any inventive step are within the scope of protection of the present application.

It is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only examples or embodiments of the present application, and that it is also possible for a person skilled in the art to apply the present application to other similar contexts on the basis of these drawings without inventive effort. Moreover, it should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another.

Reference in the specification to "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment can be included in at least one embodiment of the specification. The appearances of the phrase in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. Those of ordinary skill in the art will explicitly and implicitly appreciate that the embodiments described herein may be combined with other embodiments without conflict.

Unless defined otherwise, technical or scientific terms referred to herein shall have the ordinary meaning as understood by those of ordinary skill in the art to which this application belongs. Reference to "a," "an," "the," and similar words throughout this application are not to be construed as limiting in number, and may refer to the singular or the plural. The present application is directed to the use of the terms "including," "comprising," "having," and any variations thereof, which are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions; for example, a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or modules (elements) is not limited to the listed steps or elements, but may include other steps or elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Reference to "connected," "coupled," and the like in this application is not intended to be limited to physical or mechanical connections, but may include electrical connections, whether direct or indirect. The term "plurality" as referred to herein means two or more. "and/or" describes an association relationship of associated objects, meaning that three relationships may exist, for example, "A and/or B" may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. The character "/" generally indicates that the former and latter associated objects are in an "or" relationship. Reference herein to the terms "first," "second," "third," and the like, are merely to distinguish similar objects and do not denote a particular ordering for the objects.

The system of the present application may be used not only for non-invasive imaging such as diagnosis and research of diseases, but also in the industrial field, etc., and the image processing system thereof may include a positron emission computed tomography system (PET system), a positron emission computed tomography-computed tomography multi-modal system (PET-CT system), a positron emission computed tomography-magnetic resonance multi-modal hybrid system (PET-MR system), etc.

The following description will be made of embodiments of the present application taking a PET system as an example.

The embodiment of the application provides a PET system. Fig. 2 is a block diagram of a PET system according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 2, the PET system includes: a PET detector 21 having a bore with an imaging field of view; and a computer device 22 configured to operate the PET detectors 21 while the subject is located in the PET detectors 21 to perform a diagnostic scan by detecting coincidence count data from a region of interest of the subject. The computer device 22 comprises a memory 221, a processor 222 and a computer program 223 stored on said memory 221 and executable on the processor 222. The processor 222, when executing the computer program 223, implements any of the compton scattering case recovery methods provided by the embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 3 is a flow chart of a compton scattering case recovery method according to an embodiment of the application. As shown in fig. 3, the process includes the following steps:

step S301, acquiring an energy value detected by the first photosensor array and a photosensor array-scintillation crystal response matrix, wherein the photosensor array-scintillation crystal response matrix is used for representing a mapping relation between the energy value detected by the photosensor array and the position and deposition energy of the scintillation crystal detecting the photoelectric effect event in one Compton scattering case.

In the present embodiment, scatter instances are detected by the PET detectors of the PET system. The PET detector is formed into a ring structure from a plurality of blocks, each block including a plurality of detector basic units. The detector base unit in this embodiment includes a photosensor array and a scintillation crystal coupled to the photosensor array. The photosensor is typically a photomultiplier tube. The scintillation crystal converts kinetic energy into light energy under the impact of high energy particles such as gamma photons to produce a flash of light, known as energy deposition. The photomultiplier converts the light energy into an electrical signal to record the response event of energy deposition and transmits the response event to a computer device for processing.

In this embodiment, the PET detector detects pair annihilation gamma rays emitted from the inside of the subject, generates a pulsed electric signal according to the amount of light of the detected pair annihilation gamma rays, and the pulsed electric signal is supplied to a processor of a computer device, and the processor generates single-event data from the electric signal. Alternatively, the processor may employ Anger logic or other processing to identify the spatial coordinates, time stamp, and estimated energy of the detected gamma ray for a single event. A plurality of single events within a predetermined time range are presumed to be annihilation gamma rays generated from the same pair of annihilation points, and these events are referred to as a single scatter case. The predetermined time range is, for example, 1ns to 18 ns.

The photosensor array-scintillation crystal response matrix in this embodiment is used to represent the mapping between the amount of energy detected by the photosensor array and the position and deposited energy of the scintillation crystal that detected the photoelectric effect event in one compton scattering case. The photoelectric sensor array-scintillation crystal response matrix can be obtained by simulating a Compton scattering event through a computer and then training elements in the photoelectric sensor array-scintillation crystal response matrix according to the energy value detected by the photoelectric sensor array in each Compton scattering case obtained through simulation, the position of the scintillation crystal detecting the response time and the deposition energy.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a method for training a photosensor array-scintillator crystal response matrix according to an embodiment of the present application, as shown in FIG. 4, in some embodiments the photosensor array-scintillator crystal response matrix can be trained in the following manner:

step 1, obtaining an initial decoding image composed of energy values of all Compton scattering cases detected by all photoelectric sensor arrays, performing energy filtering on the initial decoding image by using an energy window of a scintillation crystal to obtain a filtered decoding image, and filtering the filtered decoding image by using an Anger mask to obtain a decoding image conforming to the Anger mask.

In this embodiment, the effective magnitude values detected by the photosensor arrays are filtered from the initial decoding map composed of the energy values of all compton scattering instances detected by all photosensor arrays, i.e., the decoding map that conforms to the Anger mask.

In some embodiments, first, analog signals of the detected response events are acquired from all the photosensor arrays to form an initial decoding map, so as to obtain the energy distribution of the response events detected by all the photosensor arrays; then, according to the energy distribution condition of the response event, the peak position in the initial decoding graph is calculated, and the number of the scintillation crystal corresponding to the peak position of the graph is determined through a lookup table. The detected instances of the same scintillation crystal are summed to obtain a 511keV energy peak for each scintillation crystal, and the energy window for each scintillation crystal is determined. And finally, filtering the decoded image after energy filtering by using an Anger mask to obtain a decoded image conforming to the Anger mask.

According to the existing research, when each scintillation crystal generates Compton scattering or photoelectric effect, the photon energy distribution on the scintillation crystal shows a certain rule: the non-scattered photons are concentrated in energy at the peak 511keV, while below 420keV the scattered photons are predominant. However, in the operation of an actual PET system, the energy spectrum of non-scattered photons has a certain width (i.e., energy window), which results in a large number of data processing channels corresponding to the energy of photons emitted by the scintillation crystal of the PET system, and one data processing channel corresponds to one photon energy, for example, in a general PET system, the energy distribution range of photons emitted by the scintillation crystal is 0 to 511keV, which corresponds to 512 data processing channels. A plurality of data processing channels of the PET system count photons passing through a respective data processing channel (e.g., 511keV) relative to photons emitted by the scintillation crystal, the largest data processing channel number being counted, i.e., the energy peak of the scintillation crystal.

And 2, screening out an energy value corresponding to each photoelectric effect event detected by each photoelectric sensor array as an effective energy value detected by each photoelectric sensor array according to an energy window of the scintillation crystal and a decoding graph conforming to an Anger mask, and recording the position of the scintillation crystal detecting each photoelectric effect event.

In this embodiment, after the decoded map conforming to the Anger mask is obtained, each detected instance is filtered by the decoded map conforming to the Anger mask. Specifically, for each case, it is first determined whether the energy value detected by the photosensor array is greater than a set threshold value and whether the detected energy values belong to the same scintillation crystal array, thereby eliminating useless data and ensuring that the energy values detected by the photosensor array belong to the same scintillation crystal array. Then adding the detection values of the photoelectric sensor arrays in the energy windows according to the energy windows corresponding to the scintillation crystals, screening the detection values through a decoding graph conforming to an Anger mask, recording the energy value detected by the photoelectric sensor arrays as effective sensor values if the detection values conform to the Anger mask, and recording the energy value detected by each photoelectric sensor as an effective sensor value if the detection values conform to the Anger maskConstitute a sensor value vectorIn this case, the scintillation crystal of a single hit event is marked as 1 when hit, and is marked as 0 when not hit, so as to obtain a scintillation crystal value vectorIn light of the above, for a single photoelectric effect event to be effective,is about 511keV and,only one of the elements is 1, and the other elements are all 0.

And 3, adjusting the elements of the photosensor array-scintillation crystal response matrix according to the effective magnitude value and the position of the scintillation crystal of each photoelectric effect event corresponding to the effective magnitude value.

In step 2, the value of the effective sensor is obtainedAnd scintillation crystal value vectorThen, the mapping relationship between them is recorded as:wherein A is a photoelectric sensor array-scintillation crystal response matrix.

For a photosensor array having m photosensors and n scintillation crystals corresponding thereto, the mapping can be expressed as:

wherein the photosensor array-scintillation crystalEach element a in the response matrix₁₁～a_mnAnd training until convergence, and finally obtaining a completely trained photoelectric sensor array-scintillation crystal response matrix A.

In the training process, the energy value of the collimated beam detected by the photoelectric sensor is not used, so that the number of training samples can be reduced, and the training efficiency is greatly improved.

It should be noted that, besides the above-mentioned method, the training method of the photosensor array-scintillation crystal response matrix may also be trained by other methods, such as using a maximum likelihood method or using a deep learning algorithm.

In step S302, the position of the first scintillation crystal, which detects the photoelectric effect event, corresponding to the energy value detected by the first photosensor array is determined according to the photosensor array-crystal response matrix.

In step S303, a first action point of the compton scattering case is determined according to the position of the first scintillation crystal and the energy value detected by the first photosensor array.

After the fully trained photosensor array-scintillator crystal response matrix a is obtained, since the energy values detected by the fully trained photosensor array-scintillator crystal response matrix a and the first photosensor array are known, whether a case is a compton scattering case or not can be identified according to the mapping relation, and in the case that the case is the compton scattering case, the compton scattering case is recovered, and the first action point of the compton scattering case is determined.

Fig. 5 is a flowchart of a compton scattering case recovery method according to a preferred embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 5, in one embodiment, after obtaining a sensor value detected by a photosensor array, it may be determined whether the energy value detected by the photosensor array is greater than a set threshold value and whether the detected energy value belongs to the same scintillation crystal array, and if a non-matching case is excluded, it is ensured that the energy value detected by the photosensor array belongs to the same scintillation crystal array. A vector of scintillation crystal values is then calculated from the valid sensor values and the photosensor array-scintillation crystal response matrix a.

In scatter case recovery, the elements in the scintillation crystal value vector are first sorted from large to small and two maxima of their elements are selected, assuming x₁And x₂. If x₁And x₂Satisfy | x₁-x₂|<10, and corresponding energy value E₁And E₂Satisfies E₁+E₂511keV and the maximum energy value Max E and the next largest energy value 2 detected by the sensor array^ndMaxE satisfies Max E/2^ndMax E<c (c is a preset value), determining the case as a scattering case.

After the scatter cases are identified, scatter case recovery can be performed according to any of the methods in the related art.

For example, in some of these embodiments maximum or sub-maximum energy methods are used for scatter case recovery. Determining a first action point of a Compton scattering case according to a threshold range in which an energy value detected by a first photosensor array falls under the condition that the number of first scintillation crystals detecting a photoelectric effect event is multiple; wherein, in a case where a next-largest energy value of the energy values detected by the first photosensor array falls within a first threshold range (e.g., [30keV, 70keV)), a scintillation crystal of the first scintillation crystals corresponding to a largest energy value of the energy values detected by the first photosensor array is determined to be a first action point of a Compton scattering case; in the case where a second largest energy value of the energy values detected by the first photosensor array falls within a second threshold range (e.g., [70keV, 700keV ]), determining a scintillation crystal of the first scintillation crystal that corresponds to the second largest energy value of the energy values detected by the first photosensor array as a first point of action for a compton scattering instance, wherein a maximum value of the first threshold range is less than a minimum value of the second threshold range. The time after recovery of scattering was:

wherein, T₁And T₂Respectively the time at which the maximum energy value is detected and the time at which the next maximum energy value is detected, σ₁And σ₂Are respectively T₁And T₂The statistical error of (2).

For example, an optimization problem for calculating the position of the scintillation crystal detecting the photoelectric event is constructed according to the decay law of radioactive elements and a photoelectric sensor array-crystal response matrix, and the optimization problem is solved to obtain the position of the scintillation crystal detecting the photoelectric event.

In some of these embodiments, constructing an optimization problem for calculating the position of a scintillation crystal that detects a photoelectric event based on the radioactive element decay law and the photosensor array-crystal response matrix includes:

the photosensor array-crystal response matrix is represented as:

for the ith scintillation crystal on the jth photosensor, the likelihood function is expressed as:

then there are:

wherein i₀The likelihood function can be made to take a maximum value, λ＝A^T；i＝1,2,3，…，n；j＝1,2,3，…，m；c_ijto representThe crystal value of the ith scintillation crystal on the jth photosensor.

Through the steps S301 to S303, whether a case is a compton scattering case can be accurately identified based on the photosensor array-scintillator response matrix, and scattering recovery is performed when the compton scattering case is identified, so that compared with a method in the related art in which two response events of a given time window are both used as scattering events and scattering event recovery is performed, the accuracy of identification and recovery of the compton scattering case is improved in the embodiment of the present application.

The embodiment of the application provides a PET system. The PET system comprises a detector and a computer device, wherein the computer device comprises a memory, a processor and a computer program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, the processor implementing the compton scattering case recovery method described above when executing the computer program.

In some embodiments, the detector comprises a plurality of blocks, and fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a block structure according to an embodiment of the present application, and each block comprises 64 detector basic units arranged in a square array as shown in fig. 6. The detector basic unit comprises 4 photoelectric sensors and 9 scintillation crystals, wherein the 4 photoelectric sensors are arranged in a square array mode, and the 9 scintillation crystals are arranged in a square array mode.

In some of these embodiments, the photosensor is a SiPM.

In the above embodiment, with 4 photosensors and 9 detector basic cells (Mircro Block, also called micro-crystal array) coupled to the scintillation crystal, the coverage of the scintillation crystal by the photosensors can be close to 100%.

In addition, in combination with the recovery method of the compton scattering case in the foregoing embodiments, the embodiments of the present application further provide a computer-readable storage medium to implement. The computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer program instructions; the computer program instructions, when executed by a processor, implement any of the compton scattering case recovery methods in the above embodiments.

The technical features of the embodiments described above may be arbitrarily combined, and for the sake of brevity, all possible combinations of the technical features in the embodiments described above are not described, but should be considered as being within the scope of the present specification as long as there is no contradiction between the combinations of the technical features.

The above-mentioned embodiments only express several embodiments of the present application, and the description thereof is more specific and detailed, but not construed as limiting the scope of the invention. It should be noted that, for a person skilled in the art, several variations and modifications can be made without departing from the concept of the present application, which falls within the scope of protection of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present patent shall be subject to the appended claims.