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Title: Estimating variability in functional images using a synthetic resampling approach

Conference ·
OSTI ID:513311
 [1];  [2]
  1. Bellcore, Morristown, NJ (United States)
  2. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)

Functional imaging of biologic parameters like in vivo tissue metabolism is made possible by Positron Emission Tomography (PET). Many techniques, such as mixture analysis, have been suggested for extracting such images from dynamic sequences of reconstructed PET scans. Methods for assessing the variability in these functional images are of scientific interest. The nonlinearity of the methods used in the mixture analysis approach makes analytic formulae for estimating variability intractable. The usual resampling approach is infeasible because of the prohibitive computational effort in simulating a number of sinogram. datasets, applying image reconstruction, and generating parametric images for each replication. Here we introduce an approach that approximates the distribution of the reconstructed PET images by a Gaussian random field and generates synthetic realizations in the imaging domain. This eliminates the reconstruction steps in generating each simulated functional image and is therefore practical. Results of experiments done to evaluate the approach on a model one-dimensional problem are very encouraging. Post-processing of the estimated variances is seen to improve the accuracy of the estimation method. Mixture analysis is used to estimate functional images; however, the suggested approach is general enough to extend to other parametric imaging methods.

OSTI ID:
513311
Report Number(s):
CONF-961123-; TRN: 97:014363
Resource Relation:
Conference: Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) nuclear science symposium and medical imaging conference, Anaheim, CA (United States), 2-9 Nov 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of 1996 IEEE nuclear science symposium - conference record. Volumes 1, 2 and 3; Del Guerra, A. [ed.]; PB: 2138 p.
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English