Validation of a Saliency Map for Assessing Image Quality in Nuclear Medicine: Experimental Study Outcomes

Abstract

Recently, the use of saliency maps to evaluate the image quality of nuclear medicine images has been reported. However, that study only compared qualitative visual evaluations and did not perform a quantitative assessment. The study’s aim was to demonstrate the possibility of using saliency maps (calculated from intensity and flicker) to assess nuclear medicine image quality by comparison with the evaluator’s gaze data obtained from an eye-tracking device. We created 972 positron emission tomography images by changing the position of the hot sphere, imaging time, and number of iterations in the iterative reconstructions. Pearson’s correlation coefficient between the saliency map calculated from each image and the evaluator’s gaze data during image presentation was calculated. A strong correlation (r ≥ 0.94) was observed between the saliency map (intensity) and the evaluator’s gaze data. This trend was also observed in images obtained from a clinical device. For short acquisition times, the gaze to the hot sphere position was higher for images with fewer iterations during the iterative reconstruction. However, no differences in iterations were found when the acquisition time increased. Saliency by flicker could be applied to clinical images without preprocessing, although compared with the gaze image, it increased slowly.