Physical quantities useful for quality control of quantitative SPECT/CT imaging

Abstract

SPECT/CT imaging is transitioning from solely qualitative applications to quantitative analysis. Quantitative SPECT/CT systems require proper calibration, optimization and quality control. Various types of modern SPECT/CT scanners have different software for calibration and quality control (QC). There is still no standardization in this regard for quantitative SPECT/CT. This issue hinders the exchange of obtained results across centers and stunts the development of repeatable and reproducible measurements. The unification and standardization of calibration and quality control techniques for quantitative SPECT/CT systems is currently a pressing need for nuclear medicine departments. The present study presents three selected physical quantities characterizing the quality of quantitative SPECT/CT system and seven quantities, currently used in the literature, to assess the quality of quantitative SPECT/CT images. The measurement of these parameters requires the use of standard gamma camera software for QC, external programs for quantitative analysis of recorded data and clinical software. The authors hope this will help physicists who are willing to perform quantitative SPECT/CT in their departments.