
3
Counting statistics
3.1 INTRODUCTION TO STATISTICAL MODELS
In this chapter the basic laws that govern stochastic processes in nuclear imag-
ing when using photon- limited data (PLD) are introduced. The PLD consist
of discre te events (e.g., radioactive dec ays) that occur at some locations within
the object. These events may or may not be detected/reg istered by the med-
ical imaging detector system (the camera). Detectors c apable of registering
discrete events will be referred to as “photon-counting detectors ” (see Chapter
5 where some of such de tec tors are discussed).
Counting statistics defined in this chapter describe the “laws of nature”
that ...