Simulation of a Quality Control Jaszczak Phantom with SIMIND Monte Carlo and Adding the Phantom as an Accessory to the Program

Document Type : Original Paper

Authors

1 Department of Medical Physics, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.

2 Department of Medical Physics, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

3 Department of Nuclear Medicine, Imam Reza Center of Medical Education and Treatment, Mashhad, Iran.

4 Medical Radiation Physics Department, Clinical Sciences - Lund, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.

Abstract

Introduction
Quality control is an important phenomenon in nuclear medicine imaging. A Jaszczak SPECT Phantom provides consistent performance information for any SPECT or PET system. This article describes the simulation of a Jaszczak phantom and creating an executable phantom file for comparing assessment of SPECT cameras using SIMIND Monte Carlo simulation program which is well-established for SPECT.
Materials and Methods
The simulation was based on a Deluxe model of Jaszczak Phantom with defined geometry. Quality control tests were provided together with initial imaging example and suggested use for the assessment of parameters such as spatial resolution, limits of lesion detection, and contrast comparing with a Siemens E.Cam SPECT system.
Results
The phantom simulation was verified by matching tomographic spatial resolution, image contrast, and also uniformity compared with the experiment SPECT of the phantom from filtered backprojection reconstructed images of the spheres and rods. The calculated contrasts of the rods were 0.774, 0.627, 0.575, 0.372, 0.191, and 0.132 for an experiment with the rods diameters of 31.8, 25.4, 19.1, 15.9, 12.7, and 9.5 mm, respectively. The calculated contrasts of simulated rods were 0.661, 0.527, 0.487, 0.400, 0.23, and 0.2 for cold rods and also 0.92, 0.91, 0.88, 0.81, 0.76, and 0.56 for hot rods. Reconstructed spatial tomographic resolution of both experiment and simulated SPECTs of the phantom obtained about 9.5 mm. An executable phantom file and an input phantom file were created for the SIMIND Monte Carlo program.
Conclusion
This phantom may be used for simulated SPECT systems and would be ideal for verification of the simulated systems with real ones by comparing the results of quality control and image evaluation. It is also envisaged that this phantom could be used with a range of radionuclide doses in simulation situations such as cold, hot, and background uptakes for the assessment of detection characteristics when a new similar clinical SPECT procedure is being simulated.

Keywords

Main Subjects

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Iranian Journal of Medical Physics
Volume 9, Issue 2 - Serial Number 2
May and June 2012
Pages 135-140

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History

  • Receive Date: 09 May 2012
  • Revise Date: 03 March 2013
  • Accept Date: 10 July 2012

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