Title :
A noise equivalent counts approach to transmission imaging and source design
Author :
Stearns, C.W. ; Wack, Daniel C.
Author_Institution :
GE Med. Syst., Milwaukee, WI, USA
fDate :
6/1/1993 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
Noise equivalent counts are a convenient and effective means to assess PET emission image quality. The method is extended to include the effects of transmission imaging on the statistics of attenuation corrected PET data. The result of the calculations is a noise figure which describes the SNR performance of the elements of the attenuation corrected emission sinogram. The noise figure demonstrates the tradeoff between emission and transmissions imaging performance, and can be used to determine optimal partitioning of imaging time between emission and transmission scans. Also, the technique can be used to compare the efficacy of simultaneous transmission/emission imaging techniques and multiple orbiting rod source geometries. Experimental and simulated results from the GE 2048 PET scanner are used to demonstrate the model. In a sample imaging situation in that system geometry, the dual rod source achieves 80% of the noise figure improvement which is available in simultaneous transmission/emission imaging without transmission data filtering, and demonstrates superior performance when a 3-point averaging transmission filter is applied
Keywords :
computerised tomography; radioisotope scanning and imaging; GE 2048 PET scanner; PET emission image quality; attenuation corrected emission sinogram; dual rod source; imaging time; medical diagnostic imaging; noise equivalent counts approach; noise figure; nuclear medicine; optimal partitioning; positron emission tomography; source design; transmission imaging; Attenuation; Contamination; Extraterrestrial measurements; Geometry; Image quality; Noise figure; Performance evaluation; Pollution measurement; Positron emission tomography; Protocols;
Journal_Title :
Medical Imaging, IEEE Transactions on