title: Correction for attenuation in technetium-99m-HMPAO SPECT brain imaging.
abstract: We present a correction technique that uses the effective bone and tissue attenuation coefficients to compensate 99mTc-HMPAO brain SPECT projections for attenuation. Transverse images of a human skull filled with a uniform mixture of 99mTc and gelatin have a greater count density at the center with respect to the periphery when corrected for attenuation with the effective water/tissue coefficient of 0.12 cm-1. An attenuation coefficient of 0.09 cm-1 produces uniform images at the expense of a reduced count density. Additional experiments with phantoms wrapped with aluminum (to simulate bone) indicate that the greater count density at the image center is a result of increased attenuation at the edges of the projections where there is a greater path length through the aluminum (or bone). SPECT projections explicitly corrected for both bone and soft-tissue attenuation result in images of improved uniformity and increased count density.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, St. Joseph's Health Centre, London, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: B J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Kemp
authors.forename: F S
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: Prato
authors.forename: G W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Dean
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Nicholson
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Reese
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008961:Models, Structural; D015609:Organotechnetium Compounds; D010091:Oximes; D019690:Technetium Tc 99m Exametazime; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D015609:Organotechnetium Compounds; D010091:Oximes; D019690:Technetium Tc 99m Exametazime