[Quantitative study of single photon radionuclide computed tomography--delineation of body contours]

Several methods to obtain the body contour which is necessary to reconstruct the quantitative images with single photon radionuclide computed tomography (SPRCT) are described in this paper. A multipurpose gamma camera system which is composed of 2 detectors, data processor and others were used to collect the data of SPRCT and body contour. An iterative reconstruction technique was implemented to reconstruct the image. Three methods for obtaining the body contour were tested. The first method utilizes X-ray CT data. The data which are obtained by GE CT/T are transferred to the data processor of SPRCT through the off-line magnetic tape and delineate the body contour. The second method uses a transmission source which was attached on the opposite side to detector. The third method uses gamma-rays which are generated by Compton scatter in the tissue of patient. The first and the second methods were able to use to obtain the body contour, but the contour obtained by third method was not accurate.