Relative importance of the error sources in Wiener restoration of scintigrams

Through simulation studies, the relative importance of three error sources in Wiener filtering as applied to scintigrams is quantified. The importance of these error sources has been quantified using the percentage changed in squared error (compared to that of an image restored using an ideal Wiener filter) which is caused by estimating one of three factors in the Wiener filter. Estimating the noise power spectrum using the total image count produced to appreciable change in the squared error (less than 1%). Estimating the power spectrum of the true image from that of the degraded image produced small to moderate increases in the squared error (4-139%). In scintigraphic imaging, the modular transfer function (MTF) is dependent on source depth; hence, this study underscores the importance of using methods which reduce the depth dependence of the effective MTF prior to applying restoration filters. A novel method of estimating the power spectrum of the true image from that of the degraded images is also described and evaluated. Wiener restoration filters based on this spectral estimation method are found to be competitive with the image-dependent Metz restoration filter