Simulation and patient studies of scatter correction in cardiac SPECT imaging

Document Type : Original Paper

Authors

1 Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil

2 Echocardiography Research Center, Rajaie Cardiovascular Medical and Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Introduction: Myocardial perfusion imaging is a nuclear medicine imaging method that is used to detect coronary artery diseases. One of the main sources of error in this imaging method is the detection of Compton scattered photons in the photopeak energy window used for data acquisition. This results in the degradation of the image contrast, and therefore decreases the diagnostic accuracy.
Material and Methods: In this study, the efficiency of dual-energy window (DEW) correction method regarding the reduction of the undesirable influence of scattering was investigated using the images acquired from the 3D-NCAT simulated phantom, and a group of patients (18 males and 27 females) in both rest and stressful situations. To evaluate the scatter correction method, the image contrasts are calculated before and after applying the scatter correction.
Results: The results obtained from this study indicated that the calculated image contrasts enhanced by applying the scatter correction in both simulation and patient studies. In the simulation study, the relative values of increase in image contrast are about 10.15% and 12.58% when using a k value equal to 0.5, and the linear fitting method, respectively. In the patient study, the relative values of increase in image contrasts regarding the rest and stress situations were about 13.63% and 10.84% for females and 12.03% and 10.56% for males, respectively.
Conclusion: The utilization of the DEW method for scatter correction of cardiac SPECT images results in an increase in the image contrast and the improvement of the image quality. 

Keywords

Main Subjects


  1. 1.        DePuey EG, Garcia EV, Berman DS. Cardiac SPECT Imaging. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2001.

    1. Nishimura S, Mahmarian JJ, Boyce TM, Verani MS. Quantitative thallium-201 single-photon emission computed tomography during maximal pharmacologic coronary vasodilation with adenosine for assessing coronary artery disease. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 1991 Sep 1;18(3):736-45.
    2. Jaszczak RJ, Greer KL, Floyd JC, Harris CC, Coleman RE. Improved SPECT quantification using compensation for scattered photons. Journal of nuclear medicine: official publication, Society of Nuclear Medicine. 1984 Aug;25(8):893-900.
    3. Axelsson B, Msaki P, Israelsson A. Subtraction of Compton-scattered photons in single-photon emission computerized tomography. Journal of nuclear medicine: official publication, Society of Nuclear Medicine. 1984 Apr;25(4):490-4.
    4. Floyd JC, Jaszczak RJ, Greer KL, Coleman RE. Deconvolution of Compton scatter in SPECT. Journal of nuclear medicine: official publication, Society of Nuclear Medicine. 1985 Apr;26(4):403-8.
    5. Jaszczak RJ, Floyd CE, Coleman RE. Scatter Competition Techniques for SPECT. IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci. 1985; 32: 786-93.
    6. Gilardi MC, Bettinardi V, Todd-Pokropek A, Milanesi L, Fazio F. Assessment and comparison of three scatter correction techniques in single photon emission computed tomography. Journal of nuclear medicine. 1988 Dec 1;29(12):1971-9.
    7. Ogawa K, Harata Y, Ichihara T, Kubo A, Hashimoto S. A practical method for position-dependent Compton-scatter correction in single photon emission CT. IEEE transactions on medical imaging. 1991 Sep;10(3):408-12.
    8. Logan KW, McFarland WD. Single photon scatter compensation by photopeak energy distribution analysis. IEEE transactions on medical imaging. 1992 Jun;11(2):161-4.
    9. King MA, Hademenos GJ, Glick SJ. A dual-photopeak window method for scatter correction. J Nucl Med. 1992 Apr 1;33(4):605-12.
    10. Pretorius PH, van Rensburg AJ, van Aswegen A, Lötter MG, Serfontein DE, Herbst CP. The channel ratio method of scatter correction for radionuclide image quantitation. Journal of Nuclear Medicine. 1993 Feb 1;34(2):330-5.
    11. Ljungberg M, King MA, Hademenos GJ, Strand SE. Comparison of four scatter correction methods using Monte Carlo simulated source distributions. Journal of Nuclear Medicine. 1994 Jan 1;35(1):143-51.
    12. Buvat I, Rodriguez-Villafuerte M, Todd-Pokropek A, Benali H, Di Paola R. Comparative assessment of nine scatter correction methods based on spectral analysis using Monte Carlo simulations. Journal of Nuclear Medicine. 1995 Aug 1;36(8):1476-88. 
    13. Asl MN, Sadremomtaz A, Bitarafan-Rajabi A. Evaluation of six scatter correction methods based on spectral analysis in 99mTc SPECT imaging using SIMIND Monte Carlo simulation. Journal of Medical Physics/Association of Medical Physicists of India. 2013 Oct;38(4):189.
    14. Noori-Asl M, Sadremomtaz A, Bitarafan-Rajabi A. Evaluation of three scatter correction methods based on estimation of photopeak scatter spectrum in SPECT imaging: A simulation study. Physica Medica. 2014 Dec 1;30(8):947-53.
    15. Segars WP, Lalush DS, Tsui BM. Modeling respiratory mechanics in the MCAT and spline-based MCAT phantoms. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science. 2001 Feb;48(1):89-97.
    16. Ljungberg M, Strand SE. A Monte Carlo program simulating scintillation camera characteristics. Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine. 1989; 29:257-72.
    17. Segars WP, Tsui BM. Study of the efficacy of respiratory gating in myocardial SPECT using the new 4-D NCAT phantom. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science. 2002 Dec 10;49(3):675-9.
    18. Pirayesh Islamian J, Bahreyni Toossi MT, Momennezhad M, Zakavi SR, Sadeghi R. Monte Carlo Study of the Effect of Backscatter Materail Thickness on 99mTc Source Response in Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography. Iranian Journal of Medical Physics. 2013 Mar 1;10(1):69-77.
    19. Hutton BF, Buvat I, Beekman FJ. Review and current status of SPECT scatter correction. Physics in Medicine & Biology. 2011 Jun 23;56(14): 85-112.
    20. Changizi V, Takavar A, Babakhani A, Sohrabi M. Scatter correction for heart SPECT images using TEW method. Journal of applied clinical medical physics. 2008 Jun;9(3):136-40.
    21. Rafati M, Rouhani H, Bitarafan-Rajabi A, Noori-Asl M, Farhood B, Ahangari HT. Assessment of the scatter correction procedures in single photon emission computed tomography imaging using simulation and clinical study. Journal of Cancer Research and Therapeutics. 2017;13(6):936-42.
    22. Tot Nederveen WH, Van Eck-Smit BL, Pauwels EK. Scatter correction on its own increases image contrast in TI-201 myocardium perfusion scintigraphy, but does it also improve diagnostic accuracy?. Annals of nuclear medicine. 2003 Dec 1;17(8):725-31.