Initial evaluation of a Gaussian scatter correction technique

Abstract

We have performed an initial evaluation of a new scatter correction algorithm, Gaussian Subtraction technique, for correction of SPECT images. This technique was evaluated by Monte Carlo simulations.

The Gaussian Subtraction technique uses a non-scatter (standard 20% energy window) and high energy windows. The window on the high energy side of the non-scattered peak is used to fit a Gaussian to the spectral peak. This technique directly determines the number of unscattered photon events detected by a gamma camera.

We find that this scatter correction technique can correct reasonably well (to within 10–15%) for scatter, for the simple phantom cases used here, using scatter windows < ∼ 20 keV wide, for ^99mTc. The Gaussian scatter technique does not require a priori knowledge of source distributions. Implementation of scatter correction would improve image contrast and quantitation in SPECT studies.