Math and Computer Science Honors Theses

Determination of Three-dimensional Voxel Sensitivity for Two- and Three-Headed Coincidence Imaging

Date of Creation

5-11-2001

Document Type

Departmental Honors Thesis - Restricted Access

Department

Mathematics

First Advisor

Edward J. Soares

Abstract

Positron coincidence detection (PCD) imaging uses single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) systems to do positron emission tomography (PET). The advantage is that in PET, emitted photons come in pairs 180° apart, which are recorded by detector pairs and so fewer scattered photons are registered as true coincidence vents. One of the important components of PCD for image reconstruction is the determination of the pixel and voxel sensitivity factors. These factors are weights that describe the probability that a particular object voxel can be measured by the detectors. We are currently developing mathematical solutions which will allow us to calculate the sensitivity factors for the two-dimensional and three-dimensional cases, for various detector configurations (two cameras 180° apart vs. three cameras 120° apart). The benefit of this project is that it will assist health care providers to utilize multi-purpose imaging systems without having to purchase separate and costly new SPECT and PET systems. Chapter l discusses the physics that lie behind PCD, the mathematics of PCD imaging, and other practical considerations. Chapter 2 is an outline of previous work in regards to sensitivity calculations, and the theory behind the sensitivity calculations in our project. Next, in Chapter 3, we present our methodology in building a program to compute the pixel and voxel sensitivity, and the MATLAB source code. Finally, Chapter 4 1s a summary of our results, the progress we have made, and directions for future work.

Comments

Reader: John B. Little

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