ES97D/ES3H5 Biomedical Imaging and Medical Devices

Lecture 16 Radionuclide Imaging – Part 3

Module leader Prof Joanna Collingwood, School of Engineering
J.F.Collingwood@warwick.ac.uk

Slides marked JC-UHCW are from/adapted from slides by James Cullis, Head of Nuclear Medicine, UHCW NHS Trust, James.Cullis@uhcw.nhs.uk
LECTURE 16 PART 3
Learning Outcomes

1. UNDERSTAND THE PRINCIPLES of gamma camera operation

2. UNDERSTAND THE PRINCIPLES AND APPLICATIONS of image formation in SPECT

The following slides include figures &

captions from core text Essentials of
in vivo biomedical imaging 2015
 Gamma Rays & Detection
Gamma Camera

e d
a
b c
f

a) Emitted and detected

b) Emitted but absorbed
c) Emitted but lost
d) Emitted but scattered and detected – pulse height analysis
e) Emitted but stopped by collimator
f) Emitted, scattered, stopped by collimator

JC-UHCW
 Modes of Operation
• Planar
• Dynamic
• Gated
• 3D - SPECT
• Fused - CT

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 Whole body / static – bone scan

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 Abnormal bone scan

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JC-UHCW

Dynamic Studies
• Series of frames
• Time/step, collimator
choice
• Time-activity curves
 Gated Imaging

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JC-UHCW
Gated Imaging – Quantitative
Measurements
Left Ventricle Ejection Fraction
Single photon emission computed tomography:
SPECT
 SPECT Imaging
• Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography
• 3D imaging
20 20 20 60
• Improves Contrast 20 100 20 140
• Planar: 140:60 20 20 20 60

• SPECT: 100:20 60 140 60

• For localisation – uptake of unknown origin or

unusual anatomy

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 SPECT Imaging - Acquisition
• Finite number of projections around 3

object 2
• Back projection blurring
(y=1/r)

1 4

Ideal Actual

JC-UHCW http://www.people.vcu.edu/~mhcrosthwait/clrs322/spectpartI.htm
 SPECT Reconstruction
• Filtered Back Projection
– Used to removed 1/r blurring
– Fourier Transform
– FT (True data) = FT (back projection data) x ν
– Post filtering required
• Iterative Reconstruction
– Number puzzle
– Popular reconstruction methods
• OSEM (Ordered-subsets expectation-maximization)
• MLEM (Maximum-likelihood expectation maximization)
– Post filtering required to reduce noise & retain image
structure

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 Iterative Reconstruction
5 10 6 11

• Solving a number puzzle 7 ? ? 3 4

8 ? ? 7 2
Forward
project
Image Calculated Compare
estimate projection projections
data with measured

Updated
Image
estimate

1 iteration 3 iterations 5 iterations 10 iterations 20 iterations

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 SPECT Imaging - Filters
• Filters required to reduce noise & retain image structure
• Different types – common is low pass (Butterworth: see below)
• Shape of filter, image information & noise
• Can have a big impact on image quality
Crit. Freq. = 0.2

Crit. Freq. = 0.3 Crit. Freq. = 0.4

JC-UHCW Crit. Freq. = 0.5 Crit. Freq. = 0.6

 Clinical Applications
• Brain scan – Parkinson’s disease/Essential tremor
I-123 Ioflupane (DAT scan)

Essential tremor Parkinson’s disease

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 Bone SPECT

• Wide range of applications.

– Infection
– Fracture
– Malignancy
– Others
• Localise abnormal
bony turnover
• Often fused with CT.

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 Lung Perfusion/Ventilation SPECT

Ventilation

Perfusion

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 Image Artefacts
• Patient Camera (Pharmaceutical)

PMT’s ?HV

Poor linearity correction Crystal Hydration Poor labelling

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WHAT NEXT?

In Lecture 17 Part 4, we will focus on

- Positron Emission Tomography (dual-photon emission, as
opposed to the single-photon we’ve considered today)
- some examples of Molecular Imaging to conclude this
module.

END OF LECTURE 16 Part 3