Attenuation correction for small animal SPECT imaging using x-ray CT data
- Bioengineering Graduate Group, University of California at Berkeley and University of California, San Francisco, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States)
Photon attenuation in small animal nuclear medicine scans can be significant when using isotopes that emit lower energy photons such as iodine-125. We have developed a method to use microCT data to perform attenuation corrected small animal single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). A microCT calibration phantom was first imaged, and the resulting calibration curve was used to convert microCT image values to linear attenuation coefficient values that were then used in an iterative SPECT reconstruction algorithm. This method was applied to reconstruct a SPECT image of a uniform phantom filled with {sup 125}I-NaI. Without attenuation correction, the image suffered a 30% decrease in intensity in the center of the image, which was removed with the addition of attenuation correction. This reduced the relative standard deviation in the region of interest from 10% to 6%.
- OSTI ID:
- 20726230
- Journal Information:
- Medical Physics, Vol. 32, Issue 9; Other Information: DOI: 10.1118/1.1984347; (c) 2005 American Association of Physicists in Medicine; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-2405
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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