Tests of Quantitative Effects and Compensation Techniques

t is well known (1—3)that photon attenuation and scatter in single photon emission computed tomogra phy (SPECT) imaging affect both image quality and quantitation measurements. The lack ofadequate com pensation techniques for these effects remains a signif icant obstacle for the implementation of quantitative SPECT and limits the quality ofclinical SPECT studies. For uniformly attenuating media, some approximate solutions to the attenuation compensation (4—12)and scatter compensation (11, 13—16)problems have been developed. However, the problem ofnonuniform atten uation compensation has received only limited treat ment, although in general the attenuation coefficient of ReceivedSept. 9, 1986;revisionaccepted Apr. 9, 1987