Quantitative single photon emission tomography: verification for sources in an elliptical water phantom

Accurate absorbed dose calculations are important for a proper dose planning in internal radionuclide therapy. The activity distribution must be measured and the target volume defined. This can be done with single photon emission tomography (SPET) if proper attenuation and scatter correction are employed. This study investigated the calculation of the activity and the volume of different spherical sources. These two parameters are essential for a proper dose calculation. The scatter and attenuation correction method is based on spatially variant scatter functions and density maps. The volume calculation method is based on obtaining a threshold from a grey-level histogram. Both point sources and spheres of different diameters containing technetium-99m were placed in different locations in an elliptical water phantom and imaged by SPET. The activity and the volume of the spheres were calculated from the SPET images and compared with known activities. Results show a quantification of activity within 10% for most of the sources. Important influences on the quantification are (a) the presence of artefacts due to improper reconstruction and (b) the finite spatial resolution which affects the total number of counts within the determined volume.