Use of adjoint Monte Carlo calculations in the simulation of SPECT systems

Journal Article · Mon Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1997 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society

OSTI ID:552580

Selcow, E C ^[1]; Yanch, J C ^[2]

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1. Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (United States)
2. Massachusetts Institute and Technology, Cambridge, MA (United States)

Monte Carlo simulations of single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) systems are used to facilitate the evaluation of the effects of physical processes such as scatter and attenuation that degrade the quality of the acquired images. As part of image analysis, it is of interest to identify the specific scatter and attenuation contributions to the detected image from differential regions within the source. The source for SPECT systems is characterized by a patient with an injected radiopharmaceutical labeled with a photon-emitting radioisotope. To better isolate the factors contributing to image degradation, it is useful to determine the sensitivities of tomographic images to changes in the radio nuclide source distribution and to the patient-collimator configuration. In particular, it is significant to establish relationships between variations in a given patient`s anatomy and the quality of the acquired images, such as those used for tumor detection. By determining the sensitivities of scatter and attenuation to the final images as a function of different source-detector configurations, the quality of tomographic images may be improved.

• OSTI ID: 552580
• Report Number(s): CONF-971125--
• Journal Information: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society Vol. 77; ISSN 0003-018X; ISSN TANSAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

55 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
BASIC STUDIES
ATTENUATION
IMAGES
MONTE CARLO METHOD
PERFORMANCE
SIMULATION
SINGLE PHOTON EMISSION COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY