MOTION CORRECTION IN A PROJECTION DOMAIN IN TIME OF FLIGHT POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY

Motion correction is performed in time-of-flight (TOF) positron emission tomography (PET). Rather than applying motion correction to reconstructed images or as part of reconstruction, the motion correction is applied in the projection domain of the PET data. The TOF data from the PET scan is altered to account for the motion. The TOF data is altered prior to starting reconstruction. The motion in the patient or image domain is forward projected to provide motion in the projection domain of the TOF data. The projected motion of different phases is applied to the TOF data from different phases, respectively, to create a combined dataset of motion corrected TOF data representing the patient at a reference phase. The dataset is larger (e.g., similar size from projection data dimension point of view, but contains more counts per projection data unit or is more dense) than available at one phase of the physiological cycle and is then used in reconstruction.