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We investigate the quantitative accuracy of the reconstruction of absolute 99mTc and 111In activities from 99mTc/111In dual-isotope SPECT studies. The separate reconstruction of two images is achieved by applying Monte Carlo simulationbased corrections for self-scatter and cross-talk between energy windows. For method evaluation, a series of 99mTc/111In physical phantom experiments was performed using a clinical SPECT/CT camera. The containers were filled with different ratios of 99mTc and 111In activities to create cross-talk with varying severity levels. In addition, we illustrate the performance of our method by reconstructing images from four simultaneous 99mTc/111In SPECT/CT studies of neuroendocrine patients. Similarly to the phantom experiments, clinical cases provide examples with different severity of cross-talk. Phantom experiments showed that Monte Carlo simulation-based corrections improved both quantitative accuracy and visual properties of 99mTc and 111In images. While the errors of absolute activities for both tracers in six containers ranged from 16% to 75% if no corrections for self-scatter and cross-talk were applied, these errors decreased to below 10% when images were reconstructed with the aforementioned corrections. These activities were measured using regions of interest larger than the true sizes of the containers in order to account for the spill-out effect. Analysis of patient studies confirmed that accurate simulationbased compensations improved resolution and contrast for both 99mTc and 111In images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The axial field of view (AFOV) of the current generation of clinical wholebody PET scanners range from 15-22 cm, which limits sensitivity and renders applications such as whole-body dynamic imaging or imaging of very low activities inwhole-body cellular tracking studies, almost impossible. Generally, extending the AFOV significantly increases the sensitivity and count-rate performance. However, extending the AFOV while maintaining detector thickness has significant cost implications. In addition, random coincidences, detector dead time, and object attenuation may reduce scanner performance as the AFOV increases. In this paper, we use Monte Carlo simulations to find the optimal scanner geometry (i.e. AFOV, detector thickness and acceptance angle) based on count-rate performance for a range of scintillator volumes ranging from 10 to 93 lwith detector thickness varying from 5 to 20 mm. We compare the results to the performance of a scanner based on the current Siemens Biograph mCT geometry and electronics. Our simulation models were developed based on individual components of the Siemens Biograph mCT and were validated against experimental data using the NEMA NU-2 2007 count-rate protocol. In the study, noise-equivalent count rate (NECR) was computed as a function of maximum ring difference (i.e. acceptance angle) and activity concentration using a 27 cm diameter, 200 cm uniformly filled cylindrical phantom for each scanner configuration. To reduce the effect of random coincidences, we implemented a variable coincidence time window based on the length of the lines of response, which increased NECR performance up to 10% compared to using a static coincidence time window for scanners with a large maximum ring difference values. For a given scintillator volume, the optimal configuration results in modest count-rate performance gains of up to 16% compared to the shortest AFOV scanner with the thickest detectors. However, the longest AFOV of approximately 2 m with 20 mm thick detectors resulted in performance gains of 25-31 times higher NECR relative to the current Siemens Biograph mCT scanner configuration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dual-isotope simultaneous-acquisition (DISA) rest-stress myocardial perfusion SPECT (MPS) protocols offer a number of advantages over separate acquisition. However, crosstalk contamination due to scatter in the patient and interactions in the collimator degrade image quality. Compensation can reduce the effects of crosstalk, but does not entirely eliminate image degradations. Optimizing acquisition parameters could further reduce the impact of crosstalk. In this paper we investigate the optimization of the rest Tl-201 energy window width and relative injected activities using the ideal observer (IO), a realistic digital phantom population and Monte Carlo (MC) simulated Tc-99m and Tl-201 projections as a means to improve image quality. We compared performance on a perfusion defect detection task for Tl-201 acquisition energy window widths varying from 4 to 40 keV centered at 72 keV for a camera with a 9% energy resolution. We also investigated 7 different relative injected activities, defined as the ratio of Tc-99m and Tl-201 activities, while keeping the total effective dose constant at 13.5 mSv. For each energy window and relative injected activity, we computed the IO test statistics using a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method for an ensemble of 1,620 triplets of fixed and reversible defect-present, and defect-absent noisy images modeling realistic background variations. The volume under the 3-class receiver operating characteristic (ROC) surface (VUS) was estimated and served as the figure of merit. For simultaneous acquisition, the IO suggested that relative Tc-to-Tl injected activity ratios of 2.6–5 and acquisition energy window widths of 16–22% were optimal. For separate acquisition, we observed a broad range of optimal relative injected activities from 2.6 to 12.1 and acquisition energy window of widths 16–22%. A negative correlation between Tl-201 injected activity and the width of the Tl-201 energy window was observed in these ranges. The results also suggested that DISA methods could potentially provide image quality as good as that obtained with separate acquisition protocols. We compared observer performance for the optimized protocols and the current clinical protocol using separate acquisition. The current clinical protocols provided better performance at a cost of injecting the patient with approximately double the injected activity of Tc-99m and Tl-201, resulting in substantially increased radiation dose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An advantage of semiconductor-based dedicated cardiac single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) cameras when compared to conventional Anger cameras is superior energy resolution. This provides the potential for improved separation of the photopeaks in dual radionuclide imaging, such as combined use of 99mTc and 123I . There is, however, the added complexity of tailing effects in the detectors that must be accounted for. In this paper we present a model-based correction algorithm which extracts the useful primary counts of 99mTc and 123I from projection data. Equations describing the in-patient scatter and tailing effects in the detectors are iteratively solved for both radionuclides simultaneously using a maximum a posteriori probability algorithm with one-step-late evaluation. Energy window-dependent parameters for the equations describing in-patient scatter are estimated using Monte Carlo simulations. Parameters for the equations describing tailing effects are estimated using virtually scatter-free experimental measurements on a dedicated cardiac SPECT camera with CdZnTe-detectors. When applied to a phantom study with both 99mTc and 123I, results show that the estimated spatial distribution of events from 99mTc in the 99mTc photopeak energy window is very similar to that measured in a single 99mTc phantom study. The extracted images of primary events display increased cold lesion contrasts for both 99mTc and 123I. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]