Cone-beam Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography Research Articles

Analytical cone-beam SPECT reconstruction algorithm with non-uniform attenuation for general non-circular orbit

In single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), due to the attenuation of gamma photons, the analytical reconstruction is complicated, where attenuation should be compensated to obtain quantitative results. We know that the resolution of SPECT is low. The cone-beam SPECT reconstruction can improve the photon density and spatial resolution of the reconstructed image. In practice, to minimize the effect of distance-dependent resolution variation (DDRV), the detector should be set as close as possible to the patient. Therefore it would be more efficacious for the orbit of the detector to be elliptical or another shape. In this paper, based on the Novikov's reconstruction formula and our Ray-driven Technology, we present an analytical cone-beam SPECT reconstruction algorithm for general non-circular orbit. The simulation results demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of our method.

Characterization of pinhole SPECT acquisition geometry.

A method is presented to estimate the acquisition geometry of a pinhole single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) camera with a circular detector orbit. This information is needed for the reconstruction of tomographic images. The calibration uses the point source projection locations of a tomographic acquisition of three point sources located at known distances from each other. It is shown that this simple phantom provides the necessary and sufficient information for the proposed calibration method. The knowledge of two of the distances between the point sources proves to be essential. The geometry is estimated by fitting analytically calculated projections to the measured ones, using a simple least squares Powell algorithm. Some mild a priori knowledge is used to constrain the solutions of the fit. Several of the geometrical parameters are however highly correlated. The effect of these correlations on the reconstructed images is evaluated in simulation studies and related to the estimation accuracy. The highly correlated detector tilt and electrical shift are shown to be the critical parameters for accurate image reconstruction. The performance of the algorithm is finally demonstrated by phantom measurements. The method is based on a single SPECT scan of a simple calibration phantom, executed immediately after the actual SPECT acquisition. The method is also applicable to cone-beam SPECT and X-ray CT.

Implementation of an accelerated iterative algorithm for cone-beam SPECT

Describes the implementation of an accelerated iterative reconstruction algorithm for cone-beam projections using a single circular orbit in single-photon-emission computed tomography (SPECT). This algorithm is a modified maximum-likelihood-expectation-maximization (ML-EM) algorithm and several approaches have been used to accelerate the reconstruction process. These approaches include: (i) the use of ordered subsets; (ii) the use of active areas and volumes; and (iii) the storing in memory of the transition vector for a given ray (during the forward projection step). This algorithm, which compensates for collimator geometric sensitivity variation as a function of position and makes uniform attenuation corrections has been evaluated using experimentally acquired phantom data. The results demonstrate a two-orders-of-magnitude decrease of the computational time of this algorithm over the conventional ML-EM algorithm with similar convergence properties.

A cone beam SPECT reconstruction algorithm with a displaced center of rotation

A filtered backprojection (FBP) algorithm is derived based on Feldkamp's FBP algorithm for a cone beam geometry that has a displaced center of rotation. In cone beam single photon emission computed tomography (CB-SPECT) the center of rotation displacement can degrade the reconstructed images. The center of rotation displacement of interest is mechanical shift, which is the displacement of the midplane of the cone beam collimator off the rotation center. Mechanical shift is characterized by two orthogonal components: the shift of the midplane of the cone beam collimator along the direction of the axis of rotation, and the distance between the midline of the cone beam collimator and the axis of rotation. This new algorithm corrects mechanical shift directly by incorporating mechanical shift into the algorithm. This new algorithm is evaluated using both Monte Carlo simulated data and experimentally acquired data. The results demonstrate that this algorithm is able to correct for blurring and the "doughnut" type artifacts caused by system mechanical shift and improve the image resolution.

A reconstruction algorithm for helical cone-beam SPECT

Cone-beam single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) provides improved sensitivity for imaging small organs like the brain and heart. Current cone-beam tomography with the focal point traversing a planar orbit does not acquire sufficient data to give an accurate reconstruction. A data-acquisition method is employed which obtains complete data for cone-beam SPECT by simultaneously rotating the gamma camera and translating the patient bed, so that cone-beam projections can be obtained with the focal point traversing a helix surrounding the patient. An implementation of Grangeat's algorithm for helical cone-beam projections is developed. The algorithm requires a rebinning step to convert cone-beam data to parallel-beam data which are then reconstructed using the 3-D Radon inversion. A fast new rebinning scheme is developed which uses all of the detected data to reconstruct the image, and properly normalizes any multiply scanned data. This algorithm is shown to produce fewer artifacts than the commonly used Feldkamp algorithm when applied to either a circular planar orbit or a helical orbit acquisition. The algorithm can easily be extended to any arbitrary orbit.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Improved image quality for asymmetric double-focal cone-beam SPECT

To optimize both spatial resolution and detection efficiency in brain single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging using a rectangular camera, an asymmetric double-focal cone-beam collimator is proposed. To fit the patient's entire head into the field-of-view of the collimator with dimensions of 50 cm*40 cm and at a radius-of-rotation of 15 cm, the focal lengths of the collimator are 55 and 70 cm, respectively, in the transverse and axial directions. With this geometry, the artifacts in the reconstructed image produced by the Feldkamp algorithm are more severe compared to those in a symmetric cone-beam geometry. To improve the reconstructed image quality, a fully three-dimensional reconstruction algorithm is extended to the asymmetric double-focal cone-beam geometry. The algorithm involves nonstationary 2-D filtering and a reprojection technique for estimation of the missing data caused by a single-orbit cone-beam geometry. The results from simulation studies with the 3-D Defrise slab phantom demonstrate that the fully 3-D algorithm provides a much improved image quality in terms of reduced slice-to-slice crosstalk and shape elongation compared to that produced by the conventional Feldkamp algorithm.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Direct cone beam SPECT reconstruction with camera tilt

A filtered backprojection (FBP) algorithm is derived to perform cone beam (CB) single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) reconstruction with camera tilt using circular orbits. This algorithm reconstructs the tilted angle CB projection data directly by incorporating the tilt angle into it. When the tilt angle becomes zero, this algorithm reduces to that of Feldkamp. Experimentally acquired phantom studies using both a two-point source and the three-dimensional Hoffman brain phantom have been performed. The transaxial tilted cone beam brain images and profiles obtained using the new algorithm are compared with those without camera tilt. For those slices which have approximately the same distance from the director in both tilt and non-tilt set-ups, the two transaxial reconstructions have similar profiles. The two-point source images reconstructed from this new algorithm and the tilted cone beam brain images are also compared with those reconstructed from the existing tilted cone beam algorithm which requires rebinning the projection data.

Three-dimensional SPECT reconstruction of combined cone beam and parallel beam data

Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) using cone beam (CB) collimation exhibits increased sensitivity compared with acquisition geometries using parallel (P) hole collimation. However, CB collimation has a smaller field-of-view which may result in truncated projections and image artifacts. A primary objective of this work is to investigate maximum likelihood-expectation maximization (ML-EM) methods to reconstruct simultaneously acquired parallel and cone beam (P&CB) SPECT data. Simultaneous P&CB acquisition can be performed with commercially available triple camera systems by using two cone-beam collimators and a single parallel-hole collimator. The loss in overall sensitivity (relative to the use of three CB collimators) is about 15 to 20%. The authors have developed three methods to combine P&CB data using modified ML-EM algorithms. The first method consists of using both data sets to reconstruct a single intermediate image after each iteration using the ML-EM algorithm. The other two iterative algorithms combine intermediate parallel beam (PB) and CB source estimates to enhance image quality.

Cone Beam Tomography of the Heart Using Single-Photon Emission-Computed Tomography

The authors evaluated cone beam single-photon emission-computed tomography (SPECT) of the heart. A new cone beam reconstruction algorithm was used to reconstruct data collected from "short scan" acquisitions (of slightly more than 180 degrees) of a detector anteriorally traversing a noncircular orbit. The less than 360 degrees acquisition was used to minimize the attenuation artifacts that result from reconstructing posterior projections of 201T1 emissions from the heart. The algorithm includes a new method for reconstructing truncated projections of background tissue activity that eliminates reconstruction ring artifacts. Phantom and patient results are presented which compare a high-resolution cone beam collimator (50-cm focal length; 6.0-mm full width at half maximum [FWHM] at 10 cm) to a low-energy general purpose (LEGP) parallel hole collimator (8.2-mm FWHM at 10 cm) which is 1.33 times more sensitive. The cone beam tomographic results are free of reconstruction artifacts and show improved spatial and contrast resolution over that obtained with the LEGP parallel hole collimator. The limited angular sampling restrictions and truncation problems associated with cone beam tomography do not deter from obtaining diagnostic information. However, even though these preliminary results are encouraging, a thorough clinical study is still needed to investigate the specificity and sensitivity of cone beam tomography.

Attenuation compensation of cone beam SPECT images using maximum likelihood reconstruction

Attenuation compensation for cone beam single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging is performed by cone beam maximum likelihood reconstruction with attenuation included in the transition matrix. Since the transition matrix is too large to be stored in conventional computers, the E-M maximum likelihood estimator is implemented with a ray-tracing algorithm, efficiently recalculating each matrix element as needed. The method was applied and tested in both uniform and nonuniform density phantoms. Test projections sets were obtained from Monte Carlo simulations and experiments using a commercially available cone beam collimator. For representative regions of interest. reconstruction of a uniform sphere is accurate to within 3% throughout, in comparison to a reference image simulated and reconstructed without attenuation. High- and low-activity regions in a uniform density are reconstructed accurately, except that low-activity regions in a more active background have a small error. This error is explainable by the nonnegativity constraints of the E-M estimator and the image statistical noise.

Maximum likelihood reconstruction for cone beam SPECT with camera tilt

Iterative maximum-likelihood (ML) reconstruction techniques are extended to the cone-beam SPECT (single-photon-emission computed tomography) geometry with the camera head tilted relative to the axis of rotation. The resulting code is an extension of a previous cone-beam ML code for the untilted case. The details of the code development, which included the variable camera sensitivity but excluded resolution, attenuation, and scatter, are described. The code is tested as a function of iteration in comparison with an existing tilt-angle filtered-backprojection (FBP) code, which has known distortions due to an incomplete theory. For a variety of point sources, as well as for a brain phantom, the tilt-angle cone-beam ML code (TCBML) performs visually and quantitatively better than cone-beam FBP (CB-FBP), and it removes the distortions inherent in CB-FBP. The TCBML code requires substantial computation time, which depends on the source geometry being reconstructed and varies in the present work from 3.5 to 50 times longer than the CB-FBP code. >