Cumulative sums for edge determination of a single object in PET and SPECT images

[摘要] The issue of edge determination of a single object in reconstructed nuclear medicine images has been examined thoroughly in the past, nevertheless most of the investigation has focused on the concepts of either numerical sinogram differentiation or segmentation. This work aims to develop an automated method for determining the contour of a single convex object in PET and SPECT reconstructed images, which can be used for computing body edges for attenuation correction, as well as for eliminating streak artifacts outside the specific object. This was accomplished by implementing a modified cumulative sums (CUSUM) scheme in the sinogram. Our method can automatically detect the object's boundary in the reconstructed image. This approach has been tested in simulated as well as real phantoms and it performed efficiently for all convex objects. We were able to detect the contour of a single object in the image space, which in turn enabled us to eliminate streak artifacts outside and thus to obtain body edges necessary for attenuation correction.

[发布机构] Research Center of Mathematics, Academy of Athens, Athens; 11527, Greece^1;Department of Mathematics, National Technical University of Athens, Athens; 15780, Greece^2;Center of Systems Biology, Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, Athens; 11527, Greece^3

[效力级别] 数学

[关键词] Attenuation correction;Automated methods;Convex objects;Cumulative sums;Reconstructed image;Single object;SPECT images;Streak artifacts