• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.163-173
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• 2005

Purpose: Abutted scatter energy windows used for a triple energy window (TEW) method may provide wrong estimation of scatter. This study is to propose an extended TEW (ETEW) method, which doesn't require abutted scatter energy windows and overcomes the shortcomings of TEW method. Materials & Methods: The ETEW is a modification of the TEW which corrects for scatter by using abutted scatter rejection windows, which can overestimate or underestimate scatter. The ETEW is compared to the TEW using Monte Carlo simulated data for point sources as well as hot and cold spheres in a cylindrical water phantom. Various main energy window widths (10 %, 15 % and 20 %) were simulated. Both TEW and ETEW improved image contrast, % recovery coefficients and normalized standard deviation. Results: Both of TEW and ETEW improved image contrast and % recovery coefficients. Estimated scatter components by the TEW were not proportional to the true scatter components over the main energy windows when ones of 10 %, 15 %, and 20 % were simulated. The ETEW linearly estimated scatter components over the width of the main energy windows. Conclusion: We extended the TEW method into the method which could linearly estimate scatter components over the main energy windows.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.93-101
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• 2015

Purpose In SPECT image, scatter count is the cause of quantitative count error and image quality degradation. Thus, a wide range of scatter correction(SC) methods have been studied and this study is to evaluate the accuracy of CT based SC(CTSC) used in SPECT/CT as the comparison with existing energy window based SC(EWSC). Materials and Methods SPECT/CT images were obtained after filling air in order to acquire a reference image without the influence of scatter count inside the Triple line insert phantom setting hot rod(74.0 MBq) in the middle and each SPECT/CT image was obtained each separately after filling water instead of air in order to derive the influence of scatter count under the same conditions. In both conditions, Astonish(iterative : 4 subset : 16) reconstruction method and CT attenuation correction were commonly applied and three types of SC methods such as non-scatter correction(NSC), EWSC, CTSC were used in images filled with image. For EWSC, 9 sub-energy windows were set additionally in addition to main(=peak) energy window(140 keV, 20%) and then, images were acquired at the same time and five types of EWSC including DPW(dual photo-peak window)10%, DEW(dual energy window)20%, TEW(triple energy window)10%, TEW5.0%, TEW2.5% were used. Under the condition without fluctuations in primary count, total count was measured by drawing volume of interest (VOI) in the images of the two conditions and then, the ratio of scatter count of total counts was calculated as percent scatter fraction(%SF) and the count error with image filled with water was evaluated with percent normalized mean-square error(%NMSE) based on the image filled with air. Results Based on the image filled with air, %SF of images filled with water to which each SC method was applied is NSC 37.44, DPW 27.41, DEW 21.84, TEW10% 19.60, TEW5% 17.02, TEW2.5% 14.68, CTSC 5.57 and the most scattering counts were removed in CTSC and %NMSE is NSC 35.80, DPW 14.28, DEW 7.81, TEW10% 5.94, TEW5% 4.21, TEW2.5% 2.96, CTSC 0.35 and the error in CTSC was found to be the lowest. Conclusion In SPECT/CT images, the application of each scatter correction method used in the experiment could improve the quantitative count error caused by the influence of scatter count. In particular, CTSC showed the lowest %NMSE(=0.35) compared to existing EWSC methods, enabling relatively accurate scatter correction.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.135-143
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• 2022

In SPECT image, scatter count is the cause of quantitative count error and image quality degradation. This study is to evaluate the accuracy of CT based SC(CTSC) and energy window based SC(EWSC) as the comparison with existing Non SC. SPECT/CT images were obtained after filling air in order to acquire a reference image without the influence of scatter count inside the Triple line insert phantom setting hot rod(^99mTc 74.0 MBq) in the middle and each SPECT/CT image was obtained each separately after filling water instead of air in order to derive the influence of scatter count under the same conditions. For EWSC, 9 sub-energy windows were set additionally in addition to main energy window(140 keV, 20%) and then, images were acquired at the same time and five types of EWSC including DPW(dual photo-peak window)10%, DEW(dual energy window)20%, TEW(triple energy window)10%, TEW5.0%, TEW2.5% were used. Under the condition without fluctuations in primary count, total count was measured by drawing volume of interest (VOI) in the images of the two conditions and then, the ratio of scatter count of total counts was calculated as percent scatter fraction(%SF) and the count error with image filled with water was evaluated with percent normalized mean-square error(%NMSE) based on the image filled with air. Based on the image filled with air, %SF of images filled with water to which each SC method was applied is non scatter correction(NSC) 37.44, DPW 27.41, DEW 21.84, TEW10% 19.60, TEW5% 17.02, TEW2.5% 14.68, CTSC 5.57 and the scatter counts were removed the most in CTSC and %NMSE is NSC 35.80, DPW 14.28, DEW 7.81, TEW10% 5.94, TEW5% 4.21, TEW2.5% 2.96, CTSC 0.35 and the error in CTSC was found to be the lowest. In SPECT/CT images, the application of each scatter correction method used in the experiment could improve the quantitative count error caused by the influence of scatter count. In particular, CTSC showed the lowest %NMSE(=0.35) compared to existing EWSC methods, enabling relatively accurate scatter correction.

• Progress in Medical Physics
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.72-79
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• 2009

Scatter correction for I-131 plays a very important role to improve image quality and quantitation. I-131 has multiple and higher energy gamma-ray emissions. Image quality and quantitative accuracy in I-131 imaging are degraded by object scatter as well as scatter and septal penetration in the collimator. The purpose of this study was to estimate scatter and septal penetration and investigate two scatter correction methods using Monte Carlo simulation. The gamma camera system simulated in this study was a FORTE system (Phillips, Nederland) with high energy, general-purpose, parallel hole collimator. We simulated for two types of high energy collimators. One is composed of lead, and the other is composed of artificially high Z number and high density. We simulated energy spectrum using a point source in air. We estimated both full width at half maximum (FWHM) and full width at tenth maximum (FWTM) using line spread function (LSF) in cylindrical water phantom. We applied two scatter correction methods, triple energy window scatter correction (TEW) and extended triple energy window scatter correction (ETEW). The TEW method is a pixel-by pixel based correction which is easy to implement clinically. The ETEW is a modification of the TEW which corrects for scatter by using abutted scatter rejection window, which can overestimate or the underestimate scatter. The both FWHM and FWTM were estimated as 41.2 mm and 206.5 mm for lead collimator, respectively. The FWHM and FWTM were estimated as 27.3 mm and 45.6 mm for artificially high Z and high density collimator, respectively. ETEW showed that the estimation of scatter components was close to the true scatter components. In conclusion, correction for septal penetration and scatter is important to improve image quality and quantitative accuracy in I-131 imaging. The ETEW method in scatter correction appeared to be useful in I-131 imaging.

• The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.33-42
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• 2014

Purpose: I-131 scan using High Energy (HE) collimator is generally used. While, Medium Energy (ME) collimator is not suggested to use in result of an excessive septal penetration effects, it is used to improve the sensitivities of count rate on lower dose of I-131. This research aims to evaluate I-131 SPECT/CT image quality using by HE and ME collimator and also find out the possibility of ME collimator clinical application. Materials and Methods: ME and HE collimator are substituted as Siemens symbia T16 SPECT/CT, using I-131 point source and NEMA NU-2 IQ phantom. Single Energy Window (SEW) and Triple Energy Windows (TEW) are applied for image acquisition and images with CTAC and Scatter correction application or not, applied different number of iteration and sub set are reconstructed by IR method, flash 3D. By analysis of acquired image, the comparison on sensitivities, contrast, noise and aspect ratio of two collimators are able to be evaluated. Results: ME Collimator is ahead of HE collimator in terms of sensitivity (ME collimator: 188.18 cps/MBq, HE collimator: 46.31 cps/MBq). For contrast, reconstruction image used by HE collimator with TEW, 16 subset 8 iteration applied CTAC is shown the highest contrast (TCQI=190.64). In same condition, ME collimator has lower contrast than HE collimator (TCQI=66.05). The lowest aspect ratio for ME collimator and HE collimator are 1.065 with SEW, CTAC (+) and 1.024 with TEW, CTAC (+) respectively. Conclusion: Selecting a proper collimator is important factor for image quality. This research finding tells that HE collimator, which is generally used for I-131 scan emitted high energy ${\gamma}$-ray is the most recommendable collimator for image quality. However, ME collimator is also applicable in condition of lower dose, lower sensitive if utilizing energy window, matrix size, IR parameter, CTAC and scatter correction appropriately.