title: Imaging of the human torso using cone-beam transmission CT implemented on a rotating gamma camera.
abstract: Radionuclide transmission CT generated on a rotating gamma camera can improve SPECT imaging by providing attenuation maps for attenuation compensation and for anatomical correlation. This paper demonstrates the feasibility and high quality of cone-beam transmission CT (CB-CT) of human subjects, in comparison to conventional parallel-ray CT, and evaluates some possible imaging protocols. Two CB-CT implementation modes, with a cone-beam collimator and without any collimator, were evaluated. Three human subjects of different dimensions were imaged. For the two smaller subjects, the CB-CT images were dramatically superior, in terms of noise and resolution, to those obtained with a parallel-ray geometry. The image noise was less by a factor of 6. CB-CT linear attenuation coefficients were found to be in close agreement with published values for various tissues. For the largest subject, image truncation produced a ring artifact at the edge, but inside the artifact, the image quality was still very good. Cone-beam images obtained without any collimator were acceptable, but photon scatter degraded the image contrast.
authors.affiliation: SUNY Health Science Center, Department of Radiology, Syracuse 13210.
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Manglos
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Bassano
authors.forename: F D
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Z D
authors.initials: ZD
authors.lastname: Grossman
mesh_terms: D001827:Body Height; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008297:Male; D013667:Technetium; D013794:Thallium Radioisotopes; D013909:Thorax / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon / Q000379:methods*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D013794:Thallium Radioisotopes; D013667:Technetium