An efficient postprocessing method to compensate for the scattering and blurring effects in inhomogeneous medium in SPECT is proposed. A two-dimensional point spread function (2D-PSF) was estimated in the image domain to model the combination of these two physical effects. This 2D-PSF in the inhomogeneous medium is fitted with an asymmetric Gaussian function based on Monte Carlo simulation resu...

State-of-the-art small-animal single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) enables sub-half-mm resolution imaging of radio-labelled molecules. Due to severe photon penetration through pinhole edges, current multi-pinhole SPECT is not suitable for high-resolution imaging of photons with high energies, such as the annihilation photons emitted by positron emitting tracers (511 keV). To deal ...

PURPOSE To characterize ordered-subset expectation maximization algorithm with a fixed 3D Gauss post-reconstruction filtering (OSEM) in 99mTc SPECT as for noise, contrast and spatial resolution with varying number of subset and iteration and to compare OSEM with an optimized set of parameters, with filtered backprojection (FBP) with filter parameters typical of brain and myocardial SPECT, both ...

BACKGROUND A phantom in combination with an imaging protocol was developed to measure the limit of small lesion detection on different PET systems. Seven small spheres with inner diameters ranging from 3.95 up to 15.43 mm were imaged in a Jaszczak ECT Phantom, in air, in a cold background, and with sphere to background contrast ratios of 15:1 down to 1.88:1. The imaging times varied from 1 to 1...

Introduction: The limited spatial resolution of the gamma camera hinders the absolute quantification of planar images of small structures. The imaged structures are affected by partial volume effects (PVEs), which can spread activity and lead to underestimation of the regional distribution.  The use of optimum planar parameters reduces the impact of the limited spatial resolution of the gamma c...

99mTc methoxyisobutylisonitrile planar scintimammography (SMM) is mostly performed using low-energy high-resolution (LEHR) parallel collimators. We studied whether using a different collimator could improve the detection of small (< 1.5 cm) lesions for which SMM sensitivity is poor. Thirty four breast phantom configurations were considered, either with hot spheres simulating lesions or without ...

introduction: the limited resolution of the imaging system causes partial volume effects (pves). these results in spreading of image counts to the neighboring pixels. this phenomenon is called spill-out effect. this study aimed at quantifying pves using imagej. methods:technetium-99m solution of concentration of 74 kbq/ml was filled into spheres a, b and c of diameters: 26 mm, 20 mm and 16 mm r...

Introduction:Low-pass filters eliminate noise, and accordingly improve the quality of filtered back-projection (FBP) in the reconstruction of single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) images. This study aimed at selection of an optimum low-pass filter for FBP reconstruction of SPECT images of small structures. Material and Methods:Sp...

introduction: in diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, dosimetric studies are performed on the dosimetric systems in order to comply the radiation safety standards. monte carlo methods are used due to the high complexity and cost of patient-specific phantom construction. the high complexity of the digitized phantoms greatly increases the time and computational task of the monte carlo calculati...

OBJECTIVE Nuclear medicine is becoming increasingly important in the early detection of malignancy. The advantage of nuclear medicine over other imaging modalities is the high sensitivity of the gamma camera. Nuclear medicine counting equipment has the capability of detecting levels of radioactivity which exceed background levels by as little as 2.4 to 1. This translates to only a few hundred c...