Positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT) together are a powerful diagnostic tool, but
imperfect image quality allows false positive and false negative diagnoses to be made by any observer despite experience
and training. This work investigates PET acquisition mode, reconstruction method and a standard uptake value (SUV)
correction scheme on the classification of lesions as benign or malignant in PET/CT images, in an anthropomorphic
phantom. The scheme accounts for partial volume effect (PVE) and PET resolution. The observer draws a region of
interest (ROI) around the lesion using the CT dataset. A simulated homogenous PET lesion of the same shape as the
drawn ROI is blurred with the point spread function (PSF) of the PET scanner to estimate the PVE, providing a scaling
factor to produce a corrected SUV. Computer simulations showed that the accuracy of the corrected PET values depends
on variations in the CT-drawn boundary and the position of the lesion with respect to the PET image matrix, especially
for smaller lesions. Correction accuracy was affected slightly by mismatch of the simulation PSF and the actual scanner
PSF. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) study resulted in several observations. Using observer drawn ROIs,
scaled tumor-background ratios (TBRs) more accurately represented actual TBRs than unscaled TBRs. For the PET
images, 3D OSEM outperformed 2D OSEM, 3D OSEM outperformed 3D FBP, and 2D OSEM outperformed 2D FBP.
The correction scheme significantly increased sensitivity and slightly increased accuracy for all acquisition and
reconstruction modes at the cost of a small decrease in specificity.
Several methods have been proposed for imaging biological tissue structures at the near micron scale and with user-control of contrast mechanisms that differentiate among the tissue structures. On the one hand, treatment with high-Z contrast agents (Ba, Cs, I, etc.) by injection or soaking and absorption edge imaging distinguishes soft tissue from cornified or bony tissue. This experiment is most compatible with high-bandpass monochromators (ΔE/E between 0.01 - 0.03), such as recently installed at the LSU synchrotron (CAMD). On the other hand, phase contrast imaging does not require any pre-treatment except preservation in formalin, but places more demands upon the X-ray source. This experiment is more compatible with beam lines, such as 13 BM-D at APS, which operates with a narrow bandpass monochromator (ΔE/E ≈ 10-4). Here, we compare imaging results of soft, cornified and bony tissues across the 2x2 matrix of absorption edge versus phase contrast, and high versus narrow bandpass monochromators. In addition, we comment on new data acquisition strategies adapted to the fragile character of biological tissues: (a) a 100 % humidity chamber, and (b) a data acquisition strategy, based on the Greek golden ratio, that more quickly leads to image convergence. The latter incurs the minor cost of reprogramming, or relabeling, images with order and angle. Subsequently, tomography data sets can be acquired based on synchrotron performance and sample fragility.
We are developing a detector system for locating environmental radiation sources. The design emphasizes compact size (ideally hand-held), wide field of view and high detection efficiency, and uses cadmium-zinc-telluride (CZT) detectors and electronic collimation via Compton-scatter detection. The detector design is a 6-sided box with a primary scatter detector on one end. GEANT4 simulations, allowing variations of detector parameters and source energies/locations, provided performance estimates. A partial prototype, using 16x16-pixel 38x38x5-mm3 CZT detectors, was developed and tested. Two methods to calculate source direction in real-time from the Compton scatter data were evaluated: (1) filtered backprojection of cones onto a sphere; (2) intersection with the sphere of bounding boxes circumscribed around the cones. Simulation results of the 6-sided box with the current CZT modules indicated 1-5% of incident gamma rays produce valid direction angles, with an angular resolution of ~15°. The directional algorithms allowed a FOV (directional error <10°) of approximately ±60°. The direction algorithms converge on a source direction estimate in as few as 100 detected events. With improvements in detector energy and spatial resolution, reasonable performance seems achievable for a range of radioisotopes, e.g., from Am-241 through Co-60.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.