Title: Attenuation correction for brain PET imaging using deep neural network based on dixon and ZTE MR images,
Abstract: Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is a functional imaging modality widely
used in neuroscience studies. To obtain meaningful quantitative results from
PET images, attenuation correction is necessary during image reconstruction.
For PET/MR hybrid systems, PET attenuation is challenging as Magnetic Resonance
(MR) images do not reflect attenuation coefficients directly. To address this
issue, we present deep neural network methods to derive the continuous
attenuation coefficients for brain PET imaging from MR images. With only Dixon
MR images as the network input, the existing U-net structure was adopted and
analysis using forty patient data sets shows it is superior than other Dixon
based methods. When both Dixon and zero echo time (ZTE) images are available,
we have proposed a modified U-net structure, named GroupU-net, to efficiently
make use of both Dixon and ZTE information through group convolution modules
when the network goes deeper. Quantitative analysis based on fourteen real
patient data sets demonstrates that both network approaches can perform better
than the standard methods, and the proposed network structure can further
reduce the PET quantification error compared to the U-net structure.