Fig. 1

Results of phantom studies with a sphere-to-background ratio of 10-to-1. ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT imaging of the standard NEMA image quality phantom and micro hollow sphere phantom (real size and zoom) having different sized spheres ranging in size from 4-37 mm (0.03-27 ml). Images were reconstructed with a.) OSEM+PSF, or b.) BPL algorithm with β=450. c.) The SUV_mean recovery coefficients of OSEM, OSEM+PSF and BPL 450 reconstructions of the NEMA phantom, compared to the EARL standard. d.) SUV_mean recovery coefficients of OSEM, OSEM+PSF and BPL 450 reconstructions extended by analysis of the micro phantom. Micro phantom data were extrapolated based on 10 mm sphere results present in both phantoms as a way to correct for attenuation (uncorrected data in Table 1 and Figure 2). “0.1” represents the level at which SUV recovery is the same as background (gray area). For the smallest spheres the volume equivalent in voxels is indicated (dash-dotted lines)