Data-dependent bandwidth selection for emission computed tomography reconstruction

At present, the choice of bandwidth in emission computed tomography (ECT) reconstruction is done by subjective means. The authors develop an automated objective selection technique for linear reconstruction algorithms such as filtered backprojection. The approach is based on the method of unbiased risk estimation. A set of 2-D validation studies using computer simulated and physical phantom data from the Hoffman et al. (1990) brain phantom are carried out. These 2-D studies incorporate measured corrections for object attenuation and lack of uniformity in detector sensitivity. It is found that the unbiased risk approach works very well. Over a range of count rates and brain slice source distributions, the root mean square (RMS) error of the fully automated reconstruction, with the data-dependent choice of bandwidth, is around 5% greater than the RMS error for the reconstruction with an ideal choice of the bandwidth.