TY - JOUR
T1 - Impact of attenuation and scatter correction in SPECT for quantification of cerebral blood flow using 99mTc-ethyl cysteinate dimer
AU - Shidahara, Miho
AU - Watabe, Hiroshi
AU - Kim, Kyeong Min
AU - Hachiya, Takenori
AU - Sayama, Ichiro
AU - Kanno, Iwao
AU - Nakamura, Takashi
AU - Iida, Hidehiro
N1 - Funding Information:
Manuscript received November 5, 2000; revised August 15, 2001. This work was supported in part by the Japan Cardiovascular Research Foundation. M. Shidahara, H. Watabe, K. M. Kim, and H. Iida are with the Department of Investigative Radiology, National Cardiovascular Center, Suita 565-8565, Japan (e-mail: iida@ri.ncvc.go.jp). T. Hachiya and I. Sayama are with the Radiology, Rehabilitation and Psychiatric Center, Kyowa 019-2413, Japan. I. Kanno is with the Department of Nuclear Medicine, Research Institute for Brain and Blood Vessels—Akita, Akita 010-0874, Japan (e-mail: kanno@akita-noken.go.jp). T. Nakamura is with the Department of Quantum Energy Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8579, Japan (e-mail: nakamura@cyirc.to-hoku.ac.jp). Publisher Item Identifier S 0018-9499(02)01639-8.
Copyright:
Copyright 2012 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2002/2
Y1 - 2002/2
N2 - Attenuation and scatter of photons are the main causes that hinder the quantification of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) value by single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), using 99mTc-Ethyl cysteinate dimer (ECD). We investigated the effects of attenuation correction and scatter correction on rCBF values with 99mTc-ECD SPECT. In particular, the applicability of uniform attenuation maps (μ maps) was evaluated in terms of errors on the estimated CBF values and the optimal threshold levels for extracting brain contours. SPECT scans were performed on seven subjects, in the presence of 99mTc-ECD. Quantitative K 1 images were computed using the reconstructed images and the input function obtained with the frequent arterial blood sampling method. The images were reconstructed by the ordered subset expectation maximization (OSEM) reconstruction in which uniform and segmented μ maps were used for attenuation correction with and without scatter correction. The transmission-dependent convolution subtraction technique was utilized for scatter correction. Segmented and uniform μ maps were generated from magnetic resonance (MR) images. We also produced uniform μ maps using ECD images obtained at various threshold levels and μ values (0.11, 0.15, and 0.172 cm -1). Scatter correction improved the image contrast dramatically. There were no significant differences between K 1 images with attenuation and scatter corrections assuming a uniform μ map (not 0.15 but 0.172 cm -1) and those corrected with segmented μ maps for most regions. However, in the former images, values were overestimated for deep structures (e.g., overestimation of 9.5% in the striatum and 7.3% in the central semi oval). This small but significant error was also observed in phantom studies and Monte Carlo simulations. We show that the overestimation using uniform μ maps is due to the weight of the path length in the bone. Absolute K 1 values were sensitive to the threshold level when the edge of the brain was determined from the ECD images, but the variation of the estimated K 1 was ±9.0% when the optimal threshold level was selected. This study suggests that the use of uniform attenuation μ maps provides reasonable accuracy, despite a small but significant error in deep structure regions, and that uniform μ maps may be provided from the emission data alone in this patient population.
AB - Attenuation and scatter of photons are the main causes that hinder the quantification of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) value by single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), using 99mTc-Ethyl cysteinate dimer (ECD). We investigated the effects of attenuation correction and scatter correction on rCBF values with 99mTc-ECD SPECT. In particular, the applicability of uniform attenuation maps (μ maps) was evaluated in terms of errors on the estimated CBF values and the optimal threshold levels for extracting brain contours. SPECT scans were performed on seven subjects, in the presence of 99mTc-ECD. Quantitative K 1 images were computed using the reconstructed images and the input function obtained with the frequent arterial blood sampling method. The images were reconstructed by the ordered subset expectation maximization (OSEM) reconstruction in which uniform and segmented μ maps were used for attenuation correction with and without scatter correction. The transmission-dependent convolution subtraction technique was utilized for scatter correction. Segmented and uniform μ maps were generated from magnetic resonance (MR) images. We also produced uniform μ maps using ECD images obtained at various threshold levels and μ values (0.11, 0.15, and 0.172 cm -1). Scatter correction improved the image contrast dramatically. There were no significant differences between K 1 images with attenuation and scatter corrections assuming a uniform μ map (not 0.15 but 0.172 cm -1) and those corrected with segmented μ maps for most regions. However, in the former images, values were overestimated for deep structures (e.g., overestimation of 9.5% in the striatum and 7.3% in the central semi oval). This small but significant error was also observed in phantom studies and Monte Carlo simulations. We show that the overestimation using uniform μ maps is due to the weight of the path length in the bone. Absolute K 1 values were sensitive to the threshold level when the edge of the brain was determined from the ECD images, but the variation of the estimated K 1 was ±9.0% when the optimal threshold level was selected. This study suggests that the use of uniform attenuation μ maps provides reasonable accuracy, despite a small but significant error in deep structure regions, and that uniform μ maps may be provided from the emission data alone in this patient population.
KW - Attenuation correction
KW - Scatter correction
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U2 - 10.1109/TNS.2002.998673
DO - 10.1109/TNS.2002.998673
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0036464471
VL - 49
SP - 5
EP - 11
JO - IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science
JF - IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science
SN - 0018-9499
IS - 1 I
ER -