title: A filtering approach to image reconstruction in 3D SPECT.
abstract: We present a new approach to three-dimensional (3D) image reconstruction using analytical inversion of the exponential divergent beam transform, which can serve as a mathematical model for cone-beam 3D SPECT imaging. We apply a circular cone-beam scan and assume constant attenuation inside a convex area with a known boundary, which is satisfactory in brain imaging. The reconstruction problem is reduced to an image restoration problem characterized by a shift-variant point spread function which is given analytically. The method requires two computation steps: backprojection and filtering. The modulation transfer function (MTF) of the filter is derived by means of an original methodology using the 2D Laplace transform. The filter is implemented in the frequency domain and requires 2D Fourier transform of transverse slices. In order to obtain a shift-invariant cone-beam projection-backprojection operator we resort to an approximation, assuming that the collimator has a relatively large focal length. Nevertheless, numerical experiments demonstrate surprisingly good results for detectors with relatively short focal lengths. The use of a wavelet-based filtering algorithm greatly improves the stability to Poisson noise.
authors.affiliation: KEMA, Armhem, The Netherlands. andrei@kema.nl
authors.forename: A V
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Bronnikov
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D002138:Calibration; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon