Count-based quantitation of functional renal volume by SPECT imaging

Author

King, M.A. ; Narayanan, M. ; Bohyer, C. ; Licho, R. ; Fung, L.C.T.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Nucl. Med., Massachusetts Univ. Med. Center, Worcester, MA, USA

Volume

45

Issue

4

fYear

1998

fDate

8/1/1998 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2189

Lastpage

2194

Abstract

The quantitation of absolute renal functional volume is of interest because many pathological processes are known to affect the growth and parenchymal volume of kidneys. Unlike thresholding and edge-detection methods, the count-based method of volume quantitation is not highly sensitive to boundary definition. In this investigation, count-based kidney volume quantitation was compared to that of fixed threshold-based estimation with and without including attenuation and scatter compensation in the reconstruction. The Alderson Organ Scanning Phantom kidneys were filled with a Tc-99m solution and placed in the Organ scanning phantom. Inserts shaped like the pelvis region of the kidneys were used to vary kidney volume. Emission imaging of the Tc-99m, and transmission imaging of a Gd-153 line source were performed by a triple-headed SPECT system. Without compensating for attenuation and scatter, the count-based method significantly under-estimated kidney volume. When attenuation and scatter compensation were included, count-based volume quantitation was more accurate than volume estimation with a fixed threshold adapted to the image acquisition and reconstruction strategies employed

Keywords

kidney; medical image processing; single photon emission computed tomography; volume measurement; Gd; Gd-153 line source; SPECT imaging; Tc; Tc-99m solution; attenuation compensation; count-based quantitation; emission imaging; functional renal volume; image acquisition strategy; kidney growth; kidney parenchymal volume; medical diagnostic imaging; nuclear medicine; pathological processes; reconstruction strategy; scatter compensation; transmission imaging; triple-headed SPECT system; Attenuation; Diseases; Image reconstruction; Imaging phantoms; Magnetic resonance imaging; Nuclear medicine; Pathological processes; Scattering; Tomography; Volume measurement;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nuclear Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9499

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/23.708341

Filename

708341