Quantitative SPECT imaging

Abstract

The scintillation camera is essentially a device that measures 2D images of a radionuclide distribution in vivo by detecting emitted photons. Due to the construction of the collimator, events in the image coming from photons emitted at different source depths will be superimposed and the source depth will not be resolved. The solution is to obtain the 3D information by measuring projections in different views around the patient and use a reconstruction algorithm. The method is called Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT). If the activity is not redistributed over the time of measurement then the assumption in any reconstruction method is that there exists one unique activity distribution for which a corresponding photon emission will result in the projections that are acquired by the system. Then the goal of any reconstruction process is to determine this distribution in 3D as accurate as possible. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.