SimSET is Monte Carlo simulation software for emission tomography. This paper describes a simple but effective scheme for parallel execution of SimSET using NetSolve, a client-server system for distributed computation. NetSolve (version 1.4.1) is "grid middleware" which enables a user (the client) to run specific computations remotely and simultaneously on a grid of networked computers (the ser...

We are testing a modified bootstrap technique for importance sampled data from SimSET (a simulation system for emission tomography). The bootstrap allows us to simultaneously produce multiple raw data sets from a single simulation while at the same time reducing the weight variation caused by importance sampling. This combination may greatly reduce the CPU time required to produce the multiple ...

(86)Y is a PET agent that could be used as an ideal surrogate to allow personalized dosimetry in (90)Y radionuclide therapy. However, (86)Y also emits cascade gamma rays. We have developed a Monte Carlo program based on SimSET (Simulation System for Emission Tomography) to model cascade gamma rays in PET imaging. The new simulation was validated with the GATE simulation package. Agreements with...

introduction: an efficient method of tomographic imaging in nuclear medicine is positron emission tomography (pet). compared to spect, pet has the advantages of higher levels of sensitivity, spatial resolution and more accurate quantification. however, high noise levels in the image limit its diagnostic utility. noise removal in nuclear medicine is traditionally based on fourier decomposition o...

introduction: it is a common protocol to use 201tl for the rest and 99mtc for the stress cardiac spect imaging. theoretically, both types of imaging may be performed simultaneously using different energy windows for each radionuclide. however, a potential limitation is the cross-contamination of scattered photons from 99mtc and collimator x-rays into the 201tl energy window. we used a middle en...

introduction: poor sensitivity and poor signal to noise ratio because of low injected thallium dose and presence of scattered photons are the main problems in using thallium in scintigraphic imaging of the heart. scattered photons are the main cause of degrading the contrast and resolution in spect imaging that result in error in quantification. thallium decay is very complicated and photons ar...

The quality and realism of simulated images is currently limited by the quality of the digital phantoms used for the simulations. The transition from simple raster based phantoms to more detailed geometric (mesh) based phantoms has the potential to increase the usefulness of the simulated data. A preliminary breast phantom which contains 12 distinct tissue classes along with the tissue properti...

Introduction: The key characteristics of positron emission tomography (PET) are its quantitative capability and its sensitivity, which allow the in vivo imaging of biochemical interactions with small amounts of tracer concentrations. Therefore, accurate quantification is important. However, it can be sensitive to several physical factors. The aim of this investigation is the assessment of the e...