Development and validation of a Monte Carlo simulation of photon transport in an Anger camera

Author

De Vries, Daniel J. ; Moore, Stephen C. ; Zimmerman, Robert E. ; Mueller, Stefan P. ; Friedland, Bernard ; Lanza, Richard C.

Author_Institution

Biomed. Eng. Dept., Worcester Polytech. Inst., MA, USA

Volume

9

Issue

4

fYear

1990

fDate

12/1/1990 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

430

Lastpage

438

Abstract

The geometric component of the point spread function (PSF) of a gamma camera collimator can be determined analytically, and the penetration component can be calculated readily by numerical ray-tracing. A Monte Carlo simulation of photon transport which includes collimator scatter is developed. The simulation was implemented with an array processor which propagates up to 1024 photons in parallel, allowing accurate estimates of the total radial PSF in less than a day. The simulation was tested by imaging monoenergetic point sources of Tc-99m, Cr-51, and Sr-85 (140, 320, and 514 keV, respectively) on a General Electric Star Cam with low-energy, general-purpose, and medium-energy collimators. Comparisons of measured and simulated PSFs demonstrate the validity of the model and the significance of collimator scatter in the degradation of image quality

Keywords

Monte Carlo methods; cameras; radioisotope scanning and imaging; 140 keV; 320 keV; 514 keV; ⁵¹Cr; ⁸⁵Sr; ⁹⁹Tc; Anger camera; Monte Carlo simulation; array processor; collimator scatter; image quality degradation; monoenergetic point sources; nuclear medicine; numerical ray-tracing; photon transport; point spread function geometric component; Cameras; Electromagnetic scattering; Isotopes; Light scattering; Monte Carlo methods; Nuclear medicine; Optical collimators; Particle scattering; Ray tracing; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Medical Imaging, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0278-0062

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/42.61758

Filename

61758