DG TOMO: A new method for tomographic reconstruction

Aim: FBP and OSEM are the most popular tomographic reconstruction methods in scintigraphy. FBP is a simple method but artifacts of reconstruction are generated which corrections induce degradation of the spatial resolution. OSEM takes account of statistical fluctuations but noise strongly increases after a certain number of iterations. We compare a new method of tomographic reconstruction based on discrete geometry (DG TOMO) to FBP and OSEM. Materials and methods: Acquisitions were performed on a three-head gamma-camera (Philips) with a NEMA Phantom containing six spheres of sizes from 10 to 37 mm inner diameter, filled with around 325 MBq/l of technetium-99 m. The spheres were positioned in water containing 3 MBq/l of technetium-99m. Acquisitions were realized during a 180 degrees-rotation around the phantom by 25-s steps. DG TOMO has been developed in our laboratory in order to minimize the number of projections at acquisition. Two tomographic reconstructions utilizing 32 and 16 projections with FBP, OSEM and DG TOMO were performed and transverse slices were compared. Results: FBP with 32 projections detects only the activity in the three largest spheres (diameter >= 22 mm). With 16 projections, the star effect is predominant and the contrast of the third sphere is very low. OSEM with 32 projections provides a better image but the three smallest spheres (diameter <= 17 mm) are difficult to distinguish. With 16 projections, the three smaller spheres are not detectable. The results of DG TOMO are similar to OSEM. Conclusion: Since the parameters of DG TOMO can be further optimized, this method appears as a promising alternative for tomoscintigraphy reconstruction. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.