Comparison of different figure of merit functions for dynamic single photon emission computed tomography (dSPECT)

Dynamic single photon emission computed tomography (dSPECT) is a technique which visualizes changing activity distributions in the human body, using dynamic emission data acquired during a single rotation of a standard SPECT camera system. The reconstruction process in dSPECT is based on nonlinear regularization and optimization techniques, and we presently compare a number of possible problem oriented figures of merit based on different spatial and temporal regularization techniques. The accuracy of dSPECT in terms of temporal and spatial resolution is tested in a simulated dynamic cardiac study and a dynamic renal patient study.