Asia Oceania Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Biology

Asia Oceania Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Biology

Influences of reconstruction and attenuation correction in brain SPECT images obtained by the hybrid SPECT/CT device: evaluation with a 3‐dimensional brain phantom

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Mana Akamatsu 1
Yasuo Yamashita 1
Go Akamatsu 2
Yuji Tsutsui 1
Nobuyoshi Ohya 1
Yasuhiko Nakamura 1
Masayuki Sasaki 3
1 Department of Medical Technology, Kyushu University Hospital, Japan
2 Institute of Biomedical Research and Innovation, Japan
3 Department of Health Sciences, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Japan
10.7508/aojnmb.2014.01.005
Abstract
Objective(s): The aim of this study was to evaluate the influences of reconstruction and attenuation correction on the differences in the radioactivity distributions in 123I brain SPECT obtained by the hybrid SPECT/CT device.
Methods: We used the 3-dimensional (3D) brain phantom, which imitates the precise structure of gray mater, white matter and bone regions. It was filled with 123I solution (20.1 kBq/mL) in the gray matter region and with K2HPO4 in the bone region. The SPECT/CT data were acquired by the hybrid SPECT/CT device. SPECT images were reconstructed by using filtered back projection with uniform attenuation correction (FBP-uAC), 3D ordered-subsets expectation-maximization with uniform AC (3D-OSEM-uAC) and 3D OSEM with CT-based non-uniform AC (3D-OSEM-CTAC). We evaluated the differences in the radioactivity distributions among these reconstruction methods using a 3D digital phantom, which was developed from CT images of the 3D brain phantom, as a reference. The normalized mean square error (NMSE) and regional radioactivity were calculated to evaluate the similarity of SPECT images to the 3D digital phantom.
Results: The NMSE values were 0.0811 in FBP-uAC, 0.0914 in 3D-OSEM-uAC and 0.0766 in 3D-OSEM-CTAC. The regional radioactivity of FBP-uAC was 11.5% lower in the middle cerebral artery territory, and that of 3D-OSEM-uAC was 5.8% higher in the anterior cerebral artery territory, compared with the digital phantom. On the other hand, that of 3D-OSEM-CTAC was 1.8% lower in all brain areas.
Conclusion: By using the hybrid SPECT/CT device, the brain SPECT reconstructed by 3D-OSEM with CT attenuation correction can provide an accurate assessment of the distribution of brain radioactivity.
 
 
Keywords
Brain perfusion
SPECT/CT
CTAC
Chang method
Digital Phantom
  1. Hayashida K, Nishimura T, Imakita S, Uehara T, Nakamura M, Tsuchiya T, et al. Change of accumulation and filling pattern in evolution of cerebral infarction with I-123 IMP brain SPECT. Neuroradiology. 1991;33:9–14.
  2. Sharp P, Gemmell H, Cherryman G, Besson J, Crawford J, Smith F. Application of iodine-123-labeled isopropylamphetamine imaging to the study of dementia. J Nucl Med. 1986;27:761–8.
  3. Akiyama Y, Moritake K, Yamasaki T, Kimura Y, Kaneko A, Yamamoto Y, et al. The diagnostic value of 123I-IMP SPECT in non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma of the central nervous system. J Nucl Med. 2000; 41:1777–83.
  4. Sorenson JA. Methods for quantitative measurement of radioactivity in vivo by whole-body counting. Academic Press, New York, 1974; 2:311–48.
  5. Chang LT. A method for attenuation correction in radionuclide computed tomography. IEEE Trans Nucl Sci.1978;25:638–42.
  6. Ishii K, Hanaoka K, Okada M, Kumano S, Komeya Y, Tsuchiya N, et al. Impact of CT attenuation correction by SPECT/CT in brain perfusion images. Ann Nucl Med. 2012;26:241–247.
  7. Stodilka RZ, Kemp BJ, Prato FS, Nicholson RL. Importance of bone attenuation in brain SPECT quantification. J Nucl Med. 1998;39:190–7.
  8. Van Laere K, Koole M, Versijpt J, Dierckx R. Non-uniform versus uniform attenuation correction in brain perfusion SPET of healthy volunteers. Eur J Nucl Med. 2001;28:90–8.
  9. Lang TF,Hasegawa BH, Liew SC, Brown JK, Blankespoor SC, Reilly SM, et al. Description of a prototype emission-transmission computed tomography imaging system. J Nucl Med. 1992; 33: 1881–7.
  10. Patton JA, Turkington TG. SPECT/CT physical principles and attenuation correction. J Nucl Med Technol. 2008;36:1-10.
  11. Iida H, Hori Y, Ishida K, Imabayashi E, Matsuda H, Takahashi M, et al. Three-dimensional brain phantom containing bone and grey matter structures with a realistic head contour. Ann Nucl Med. 2013;27:25–36.
  12. Onishi H, Motomura N, Fujino K, Natsume T, Haramoto Y. Quantitative performance of advanced resolution recovery strategies on SPECT images: evaluation with use of digital phantom models. Radiol Phys Technol. 2013; 6: 42–53.
  13. de Dreuille O, Strijckmans V, Almeida P, Loc’h C, Bendriem B. Bone equivalent liquid solution to assess accuracy of transmission measurements in SPECT and PET. IEEE Trans Nucl Sci. 1997; 44: 1186–90.
  14. Arlig A, Gustafsson A, Jacobsson L, Ljungberg M, Wikkelsö C. Attenuation correction in quantitative SPECT of cerebral blood flow: a Monte Carlo study. Phys Med Biol. 2000; 45: 3847–59.
  15. Ogura T, Hida K, Masuzuka T, Saito H, Minoshima S, Nishikawa K. An automated ROI setting method using NEUROSTAT on cerebral blood flow SPECT images. Ann Nucl Med. 2009; 23: 33–41.
  16. Brambilla M, Cannillo B, Dominietto M, Leva L, Secco C, Inglese E. Characterization of ordered-subsets expectation maximization with 3D post-reconstruction Gauss filtering and comparison with filtered backprojection in 99mTc SPECT. Ann Nucl Med. 2005;19:75–82.
  17. Yokoi T, Shinohara H, Onishi H. Performance evaluation of OSEM reconstruction algorithm incorporating three-dimensional distance-dependent resolution recovery compensation for brain SPECT: A simulation study. Ann Nucl Med. 2002; 16:11–8.
  18. Knoll P, Kotalova D, Köchle G, Kuzelka I, Minear G, Mirzaei S, et al. Comparison of advanced iterative reconstruction methods for SPECT/CT. Z Med Phys. 2012;22:58–69.
  19. Onishi H, Matsutake Y, Kawashima H, Matsutomo N, Amijima H. Comparative study of anatomical normalization errors in SPM and 3D-SSP using digital brain phantom. Ann Nucl Med. 2011; 25: 59–67.
  20. Larsson A, Johansson L, Sundstrom T, Ahlström KR. A method for attenuation and scatter correction of brain SPECT based on computed tomography images. Nucl Med Commun. 2003; 24: 411–20.