Abstract for presentation at 38th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nuclear Medicine 2008

A Simple Method for Calculating Noise / Sampling Error in Gated SPECT

  • Geoffrey Currie, Charles Sturt University, Australia
  • Dr Janelle Wheat, Charles Sturt University, Australia
  • Prof Hosen Kiat, Cardiac Health Institute, Australia

    • The introduction of cardiac gating to the myocardial perfusion SPECT affords the ability to simultaneously assess both myocardial perfusion and function. While gating myocardial perfusion SPECT offers physical and clinical advantages that are well recognised, the improved temporal resolution over non gated SPECT may come at the expense of a deteriorating signal to noise ratio (SNR). Not only does a poor SNR have an adverse effect on image quality but the lower count statistics also result in greater statistical uncertainty for data entering mathematical reconstruction. SPECT reconstruction and filtering complicate calculations of SNR because the processed data are no longer comprised of pixels independent from one another.

    While these relationships are intuitive, particularly to the experienced practitioner, more precise calculation is warranted to appropriately inform decision making. We describe a very simple and intuitive method for determining and applying the physical principles that govern nuclear medicine.

    Conference Organiser - ICMS Pty Ltd