Monte Carlo evaluation of accuracy and noise properties of two scatter correction methods for Tl-201 cardiac SPECT

: Narita Y, Iida H, Eberl S, Nakamura T

Publisher: IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC

: 1997

: IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science

: IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NUCLEAR SCIENCE

: IEEE T NUCL SCI

: 44

: 6

: 2465

: 2472

: 8

: 0018-9499

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/23.656453

Two independent scatter correction techniques, transmission dependent convolution subtraction (TDCS) and triple-energy window (TEW) method, were evaluated in terms of quantitative accuracy and noise properties using Monte Carlo simulation (EGS4). Emission projections (primary, scatter and scatter plus primary) were simulated for three numerical phantoms for Tl-201. Data were reconstructed with ordered-subset EM algorithm including noise-less transmission data based attenuation correction. Accuracy of TDCS and TEW scatter corrections were assessed by comparison with simulated true primary data The uniform cylindrical phantom simulation demonstrated better quantitative accuracy with TDCS than with TEW (-2.0% vs 16.7%) and better S/N (6.48 vs 5.05). A uniform ring myocardial phantom simulation demonstrated better homogeneity with TDCS than TEW in the myocardium; i.e., anterior-to-posterior wall count ratios were 0.99 and 0.76 with TDCS and TEW, respectively. For the MCAT phantom, TDCS provided good visual and quantitative agreement with simulated true primary image without noticeably increasing the noise after scatter correction. Overall TDCS proved to be more accurate and less noisy than TEW, facilitating quantitative assessment of physiological functions with SPECT.