Partial volume morphology: eliminating precision loss in binary morphology

Summary Aim: Serotonin transporter (SERT) imaging can be used to study the role of regional abnormalities of neurotransmitter release in various mental disorders and to study the mechanism of action of therapeutic drugs or drugs’ abuse. We examine the quantitative accuracy and reproducibility that can be achieved with high-resolution SPECT of serotonergic neurotransmission. Method: Binding potential (BP) of 123I labeled tracer specific for midbrain SERT was assessed in 20 healthy persons. The effects of scatter, attenuation, partial volume, mis-registration and statistical noise were estimated using phantom and human studies. Results: Without any correction, BP was underestimated by 73%. The partial volume error was the major component in this underestimation whereas the most critical error for the reproducibility was misplacement of region of interest (ROI). Conclusion: The proper ROI registration, the use of the multiple head gamma camera with transmission based scatter correction introduce more relevant results. However, due to the small dimensions of the midbrain SERT structures and poor spatial resolution of SPECT, the improvement without the partial volume correction is not great enough to restore the estimate of BP to that of the true one.

Download Full-text

Faculty Opinions recommendation of Spinal cord tolerance to single-fraction partial-volume irradiation: a swine model.

Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature ◽

10.3410/f.8319957.8759056 ◽

2011 ◽

Author(s):

Yoshiya Yamada

Keyword(s):

Spinal Cord ◽

Swine Model ◽

Single Fraction ◽

Partial Volume ◽

Spinal Cord Tolerance

Download Full-text

Segmentation-Based Partial Volume Correction for Volume Estimation of Solid Lesions in CT

IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging ◽

10.1109/tmi.2013.2287374 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 33 (2) ◽

pp. 462-480 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Frank Heckel ◽

Hans Meine ◽

Jan H. Moltz ◽

Jan-Martin Kuhnigk ◽

Johannes T. Heverhagen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Volume Estimation ◽

Partial Volume Correction ◽

Partial Volume ◽

Volume Correction ◽

Solid Lesions

Download Full-text

Correction for the Partial Volume Effects (PVE) in Nuclear Medicine Imaging: A Post-Reconstruction Analytic Method

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app11146460 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (14) ◽

pp. 6460

Author(s):

Fabio Di Martino ◽

Patrizio Barca ◽

Eleonora Bortoli ◽

Alessia Giuliano ◽

Duccio Volterrani

Keyword(s):

Nuclear Medicine ◽

Imaging System ◽

Tomographic Reconstruction ◽

Mathematical Expression ◽

Reconstruction Algorithm ◽

Volume Effect ◽

Nuclear Medicine Imaging ◽

Theoretical Derivation ◽

Reconstruction Process ◽

Partial Volume

Quantitative analyses in nuclear medicine are increasingly used, both for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. The Partial Volume Effect (PVE) is the most important factor of loss of quantification in Nuclear Medicine, especially for evaluation in Region of Interest (ROI) smaller than the Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM) of the PSF. The aim of this work is to present a new approach for the correction of PVE, using a post-reconstruction process starting from a mathematical expression, which only requires the knowledge of the FWHM of the final PSF of the imaging system used. After the presentation of the theoretical derivation, the experimental evaluation of this method is performed using a PET/CT hybrid system and acquiring the IEC NEMA phantom with six spherical “hot” ROIs (with diameters of 10, 13, 17, 22, 28, and 37 mm) and a homogeneous “colder” background. In order to evaluate the recovery of quantitative data, the effect of statistical noise (different acquisition times), tomographic reconstruction algorithm with and without time-of-flight (TOF) and different signal-to-background activity concentration ratio (3:1 and 10:1) was studied. The application of the corrective method allows recovering the loss of quantification due to PVE for all sizes of spheres acquired, with a final accuracy less than 17%, for lesion dimensions larger than two FWHM and for acquisition times equal to or greater than two minutes.

Download Full-text

Evaluation of nuclear medicine planar images based on partial volume effects and recovery coefficients at different activity levels of radionuclides and matrix sizes

IOP Conference Series Materials Science and Engineering ◽

10.1088/1757-899x/1106/1/012015 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 1106 (1) ◽

pp. 012015

Author(s):

Mohd Fahmi Mohd Yusof ◽

Nor Amalyna Ghazali ◽

Ummi Solehah Ab Ghani ◽

Ahmad Thaifur Khaizul ◽

Puteri Nor Khatijah Abd Hamid

Keyword(s):

Nuclear Medicine ◽

Activity Levels ◽

Partial Volume ◽

Partial Volume Effects ◽

Planar Images ◽

Volume Effects

Download Full-text

The effect of calibration factors and recovery coefficients on 177Lu SPECT activity quantification accuracy: a Monte Carlo study

EJNMMI Physics ◽

10.1186/s40658-021-00365-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Keamogetswe Ramonaheng ◽

Johannes A. van Staden ◽

Hanlie du Raan

Keyword(s):

Monte Carlo ◽

Monte Carlo Study ◽

Partial Volume Correction ◽

Detector Response ◽

Physical Size ◽

Partial Volume ◽

Volume Correction ◽

Radioactive Water ◽

Quantification Accuracy ◽

Cylindrical Volume

Abstract Background Different gamma camera calibration factor (CF) geometries have been proposed to convert SPECT data into units of activity concentration. However, no consensus has been reached on a standardised geometry. The CF is dependent on the selected geometry and is further affected by partial volume effects. This study investigated the effect of two CF geometries and their corresponding recovery coefficients (RCs) on the quantification accuracy of 177Lu SPECT images using Monte Carlo simulations. Methods The CF geometries investigated were (i) a radioactive-sphere surrounded by non-radioactive water (sphere-CF) and (ii) a cylindrical phantom uniformly filled with radioactive water (cylinder-CF). Recovery coefficients were obtained using the sphere-CF and cylinder-CF, yielding the sphere-RC and cylinder-RC values, respectively, for partial volume correction (PVC). The quantification accuracy was evaluated using four different-sized spheres (15.6–65.4 ml) and a kidney model with known activity concentrations inside a cylindrical, torso and patient phantom. Images were reconstructed with the 3D OS-EM algorithm incorporating attenuation, scatter and detector-response corrections. Segmentation was performed using the physical size and a small cylindrical volume inside the cylinder for the sphere-CF and cylinder-CF, respectively. Results The sphere quantification error (without PVC) was better for the sphere-CF (≤ − 5.54%) compared to the cylinder-CF (≤ − 20.90%), attributed to the similar geometry of the quantified and CF spheres. Partial volume correction yielded comparable results for the sphere-CF-RC (≤ 3.47%) and cylinder-CF-RC (≤ 3.53%). The accuracy of the kidney quantification was poorer (≤ 22.34%) for the sphere-CF without PVC compared to the cylinder-CF (≤ 2.44%). With PVC, the kidney quantification results improved and compared well for the sphere-CF-RC (≤ 3.50%) and the cylinder-CF-RC (≤ 3.45%). Conclusion The study demonstrated that upon careful selection of CF-RC combinations, comparable quantification errors (≤ 3.53%) were obtained between the sphere-CF-RC and cylinder-CF-RC, when all corrections were applied.

Download Full-text

MR-Based Correction of Brain PET Measurements for Heterogeneous Gray Matter Radioactivity Distribution

Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism ◽

10.1097/00004647-199607000-00016 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 16 (4) ◽

pp. 650-658 ◽

Cited By ~ 96

Author(s):

Carolyn Cidis Meltzer ◽

Jon Kar Zubieta ◽

Jonathan M. Links ◽

Paul Brakeman ◽

Martin J. Stumpf ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gray Matter ◽

Accurate Determination ◽

Brain Structures ◽

Volume Averaging ◽

Partial Volume Correction ◽

Sampling Errors ◽

Partial Volume ◽

Volume Correction ◽

Healthy Elderly ◽

Wide Range

Partial volume and mixed tissue sampling errors can cause significant inaccuracy in quantitative positron emission tomographic (PET) measurements. We previously described a method of correcting PET data for the effects of partial volume averaging on gray matter (GM) quantitation; however, this method may incompletely correct GM structures when local tissue concentrations are highly heterogeneous. We have extended this three-compartment algorithm to include a fourth compartment: a GM volume of interest (VOI) that can be delineated on magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. Computer simulations of PET images created from human MR data demonstrated errors of up to 120% in assigned activity values in small brain structures in uncorrected data. Four-compartment correction achieved full recovery of a wide range of coded activity in GM VOIs such as the amygdala, caudate, and thalamus. Further validation was performed in an agarose brain phantom in actual PET acquisitions. Implementation of this partial volume correction approach in [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose and [11C]-carfentanil PET data acquired in a healthy elderly human subject was also performed. This newly developed MR-based partial volume correction algorithm permits the accurate determination of the true radioactivity concentration in specific structures that can be defined by MR by accounting for the influence of heterogeneity of GM radioactivity.

Download Full-text