An effective scatter correction method based on single scatter simulation for a 3D whole-body PET scanner

Hamamatsu SHR74000 is a newly designed full three-dimensional (3D) whole body positron emission tomography (PET) scanner with small crystal size and large field of view (FOV). With the improvement of sensitivity, the scatter events increase significantly at the same time, especially for large objects. Monte Carlo simulations help us to understand the scatter phenomena and provide good references for scatter correction. In this paper, we introduce an effective scatter correction method based on single scatter simulation for the new PET scanner, which accounts for the full 3D scatter correction. With the results from Monte Carlo simulations, we implement a new scale method with special concentration on scatter events from outside the axial FOV and multiple scatter events. The effects of scatter correction are investigated and evaluated by phantom experiments; the results show good improvements in quantitative accuracy and contrast of the images, even for large objects.