The Image Formation Chain in Emission Tomography starts with an injection that is administered to a patient. The syringe usually contains a pharmaceutical that bounds a radioactive nuclide like Tc-99m, I-123, I-131 or Tl-208 for Single Photon Emission Tomography (SPECT). Afterwards the patient is imaged with a dual head SPECT-CT system that rotates its 2 detectors around the patient to acquire projection data for later use during the reconstruction. For more precise localization of the functional images a CT is acquired that is later registered to the reconstructed functional data. Fused images show the physicians a better localization of the metabolic processes and support the physicians in their diagnosis decisions.

The main topics investigated during this project incorporate novel reconstruction methods for current and prototype systems that will increase image resolution and tracer activity localization as well as strengthen physicians' confidence when reading patient images. This research goes hand in hand with the usage of the state-of-the-art computational hardware (e.g. GPU processors) for speed up of the reconstruction algorithms.  Imaging Science Institute (ISI) and Nuclear Medicine Clinic at the University of Erlangen, medical institutes equipped with the newest state-of-the-art imaging modalities, will contribute to the multimodal aspect of this project by providing different functional and morphological data and information on a patient's disease.