Brain phantom: high-resolution imaging with SPECT and I-123.

Abstract

Inverse Monte Carlo (IMOC) is a unified reconstruction algorithm for single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) that provides simultaneous compensation for attenuation and collimator divergence. IMOC was applied to the reconstruction of SPECT images of a brain phantom with iodine-123 and high-resolution collimation. Projection sets containing 80,000, 540,000, and 5.2 million counts were reconstructed. Comparison with filtered back-projection reconstructions showed that the IMOC reconstructions provided superior noise and resolution characteristics at all three photon densities. Results of this study indicate that IMOC may allow the use of high-resolution, low-sensitivity collimation for SPECT studies, which have traditionally provided photon yields too low for useful imaging.