Importance

Loading Importance Indicators...

Abstract

A transmission radiation source (30a) radiates at a plurality of energy levels within a specified energy range. The energy range is divided into two or more energy subranges. Detectors (20a-20c) detect the position or trajectory and energy of transmitted radiation and emitted radiation. A sorter (48) sorts the detected radiation into the appropriate energy subrange. Data for each subrange is stored in a plurality of transmission data memories (50a-50n). Reconstruction processors (52a-52n) generate a transmission image representation (54a-54n) representative of each energy subrange. A combine processor (60) weights each energy subrange image representation with an assigned weighting factor (64a-64n) to provide enhancement of at least one feature when the images are combined to generate weighted image representations (72, 74, 76). The plurality of transmission images are also combined with equal weighting to generate an image representation (70) used to generate attenuation correction factors (80) for correcting the emission data (46). A reconstruction processor (84) generates a corrected emission image representation (86). The emission image can be combined with one of the feature-enhanced structural images (72, 74, 76) using a combiner (92) and displayed, allowing the functional emission image to be located with respect to structural or anatomical features. Also, a feature-enhanced structural image (72, 74, 76), can advantageously be used to register the emission image (86) with an image (100) from another modality, such as a computed tomography (CT) image.

First Claim