Quantitative and qualitative imaging in single photon emission tomography for nuclear medicine applications.

An important goal of single photon emission tomography (SPECT) is the determination of absolute regional radionuclide concentration as a function of time. Quantitative and qualitative studies of SPECT with regard to clinical application is the object of this work. Three basic approaches for image reconstruction and factors which affect the choice of a reconstruction algorithm have been reviewed, discussed and the reconstruction techniques, GRADY and CBP evaluated, based on computer modelling. A sophisticated package of computational subroutines, RECLBL, for image reconstruction and for generation of phantoms, which was fully implemented on PRIME was used throughout this study. Two different systems, a rotating gamma-camera and a prototype scanning-rig have been used to carry out tomography experiments with different phantoms in emission and transmission mode. Performance assessment and reproducibility of the gamma-camera was tested prior to the experimental work. SPECT studies are generally hampered for a number of reasons, the most severe being attenuation and scattering. The effect of scattered photons on image quality was discussed, three distinct techniques were utilised to correct the images and results were compared. Determination of the depth of the source, Am-241 and Tc-99m in the attenuating media, water and TEMEX by analysing the spectroscopic data base on the SPR and spatial resolution was studied, results revealed that both techniques had the same range of depth sensitivity. A method of simultaneous emission and transmission tomography was developed to correct the images for attenuation. The reproducibility of the technique was examined. Results showed that the technique is able to present a promising and a practical approach to more accurate quantitative SPECT imaging. A procedure to evaluate images, under certain conditions has been defined, its properties were evaluated using computer modelling as well as real data. Usefulness of the odd sampling technique to improve image quality has been investigated and is recommended