| Peer-Reviewed

Partial Volume Effect (PVE) Correction in Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) Imaging

Received: 5 August 2023     Accepted: 23 August 2023     Published: 6 September 2023
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Abstract

Quantitative analyses in Nuclear Medicine are essential, hence growing interest in algorithms that make nuclear medical data more reliable and accurate. The Partial Volume Effect (PVE) is the most important factor of loss of quantification in Nuclear Medicine, particularly for evaluation in regions of interest (ROIs) smaller than the Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM) of the Point Spread Function (PSF) of the imaging system. This study is focused on applying a post-reconstruction correction algorithm of PVE at regional level in SPECT imaging. After a quantitative evaluation of the sigma of the PSF of the SPECT imaging system, several experimental situations have been studied using the standard IEC NEMA Body phantom, which contains six spherical inserts that mimic lesions with diameters of 10 mm, 13 mm, 17 mm, 22 mm, 28 mm, and 37 mm. They were filled with 99mTc mixed with distilled water using a sphere-to-background activity concentration ratio of 10: 1. The experimental measurements were carried out with two activity concentrations of 99mTc: 170.2 KBq/mL and 451.0 KBq/mL. The PVE correction approach has been employed in this paper to correct PVE on spherical volumes of interest (VOIs) of different sizes and to evaluate the recovery of quantitative data. Images were reconstructed using Ordered-Subset Expectation Maximization (OSEM) algorithm, applying scatter and attenuation corrections of photons, both with and without the application of the Butterworth filter. In the end, a post-reconstruction algorithm implemented with MATLAB was used. The mean difference rate between the corrected image and the raw image of the medium-sized spheres (13mm, 17mm, and 22mm) gives an improvement rate of about 70% of the PVE correction for unfiltered images at 170.2 KBq/mL. This work showed that the application of the PVE correction method recovers lost activity concentration with accuracy.

Published in Radiation Science and Technology (Volume 9, Issue 3)
DOI 10.11648/j.rst.20230903.11
Page(s) 26-35
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Partial Volume Effect, Recovery, Point Spread Function, Post-Reconstruction Correction Algorithm, SPECT Imaging

References
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[2] Clarke LP, Leong LL, Serafini AN, Tyson IB, Silbiger ML. Quantitative SPECT imaging: influence of object size. Nucl Med Commun 1986; 7 (5): 363–72.
[3] Jaszczak JR, Coleman RE, Withehead FR. Physical factors affecting quantitative measurement using camera based single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). IEEE Trans Nucl Sci 1981; 28: 69–80.
[4] IAEA Human Health Reports No. 9 2014 Quantitative Nuclear Medicine Imaging Concepts, Requirements and Methods (Vienna: International Atomic Energy Agency).
[5] Di Martino, F.; Barca, P.; Bortoli, E.; Giuliano, A.; Volterrani, D. Correction for the Partial Volume Effects (PVE) in Nuclear Medicine Imaging: A Post-Reconstruction Analytic Method. Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 6460. https://doi.org/10.3390/ app11146460
[6] Marine Soret, Stephen L. Bacharach, and Irene Buvat. Partial-Volume Effect in PET Tumor Imaging. J Nucl Med 2007; 48: 932–945. DOI: 10.2967/jnumed.106.035774.
[7] Andreas Grings, Camille Jobic, Torsten Kuwert and Philipp Ritt. The magnitude of the partial volume effect in SPECT imaging of the kidneys: a phantom study. Grings et al. EJNMMI Physics (2022) 9: 18 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40658-022-00446-2
[8] Frouin V, Comtat C, Reilhac A, Gregoire MC. Correction of partial-volume effect for PET striatal imaging: fast implementation and study of robustness. J Nucl Med. 2002; 43: 1715–1726.
[9] Mpumelelo Nyathi, Enoch Sithole2, Ouma Ramafi, Quantification of partial volume effects in planar imaging. Iran J Nucl Med 2016; 24 (2): 115-120.
[10] Marquis H, Willowson KP, Bailey DL. Partial volume effect in SPECT & PET imaging and impact on radionuclide dosimetry estimates. Asia Ocean J Nucl Med Biol. 2023; 11 (1): 44-54. doi: 10.22038/AOJNMB.2022.63827.1448.
[11] C Nioche, F Orlhac, S Boughdad, S Reuzé, J Goya-Outi, C Robert, C Pellot-Barakat, M Soussan, F Frouin, and I Buvat. LIFEx: a freeware for radiomic feature calculation in multimodality imaging to accelerate advances in the characterization of tumor heterogeneity. Cancer Research 2018; 78 (16): 4786-4789. www.lifexsoft.org
[12] ImageJ software, 1.54f; Java 1.8.0_265 [64-bit]. [Internet]. 2023 [cited 2023 August 04]. Available from: http://imagej.net/software/Fiji/download.html
[13] Gong, K.; Cherry, S. R.; Qi, J. On the assessment of spatial resolution of PET systems with iterative image reconstruction. Phys. Med. Biol. 2016, 61, N193–N202.
[14] John C. Dickson, Ian S. Armstrong, Pablo Minguez Gabiña, Ana M. Denis Bacelar, Aron K. Krizsan, Jonathan M. Gear, Tim Van den Wyngaert, Lioe Fee de Geus Oei, Ken Herrmann. EANM practice guideline for quantitative SPECT CT. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging (2023) 50: 980–995. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-022-06028-9.
[15] Mpumelelo N. Determination of Optimum Planar Imaging Parameters for Small Structures with Diameters Less Than the Resolution of the Gamma Camera. Iran J Med Phys 2017; 14: 219-228. 10.22038/ijmp.2017.24559.1246.
[16] Mohd Fahmi Mohd Yusof, Ummi Solehah Ab Ghani, Nor Amalyna Ghazali, Ahmad Thaifur Khaizul, Abdullah Waidi Idris. Evaluation of contrast and recovery coefficients as performance parameters in planar and SPECT imaging. 2020 IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. 785 012046.
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    Koffi N’guessan Placide Gabin Allangba, Annick Kouame Koutouan, Alessia Giuliano, Zié Traoré, Antonio Traino. (2023). Partial Volume Effect (PVE) Correction in Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) Imaging. Radiation Science and Technology, 9(3), 26-35. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.rst.20230903.11

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    ACS Style

    Koffi N’guessan Placide Gabin Allangba; Annick Kouame Koutouan; Alessia Giuliano; Zié Traoré; Antonio Traino. Partial Volume Effect (PVE) Correction in Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) Imaging. Radiat. Sci. Technol. 2023, 9(3), 26-35. doi: 10.11648/j.rst.20230903.11

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    AMA Style

    Koffi N’guessan Placide Gabin Allangba, Annick Kouame Koutouan, Alessia Giuliano, Zié Traoré, Antonio Traino. Partial Volume Effect (PVE) Correction in Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) Imaging. Radiat Sci Technol. 2023;9(3):26-35. doi: 10.11648/j.rst.20230903.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.rst.20230903.11,
      author = {Koffi N’guessan Placide Gabin Allangba and Annick Kouame Koutouan and Alessia Giuliano and Zié Traoré and Antonio Traino},
      title = {Partial Volume Effect (PVE) Correction in Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) Imaging},
      journal = {Radiation Science and Technology},
      volume = {9},
      number = {3},
      pages = {26-35},
      doi = {10.11648/j.rst.20230903.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.rst.20230903.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.rst.20230903.11},
      abstract = {Quantitative analyses in Nuclear Medicine are essential, hence growing interest in algorithms that make nuclear medical data more reliable and accurate. The Partial Volume Effect (PVE) is the most important factor of loss of quantification in Nuclear Medicine, particularly for evaluation in regions of interest (ROIs) smaller than the Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM) of the Point Spread Function (PSF) of the imaging system. This study is focused on applying a post-reconstruction correction algorithm of PVE at regional level in SPECT imaging. After a quantitative evaluation of the sigma of the PSF of the SPECT imaging system, several experimental situations have been studied using the standard IEC NEMA Body phantom, which contains six spherical inserts that mimic lesions with diameters of 10 mm, 13 mm, 17 mm, 22 mm, 28 mm, and 37 mm. They were filled with 99mTc mixed with distilled water using a sphere-to-background activity concentration ratio of 10: 1. The experimental measurements were carried out with two activity concentrations of 99mTc: 170.2 KBq/mL and 451.0 KBq/mL. The PVE correction approach has been employed in this paper to correct PVE on spherical volumes of interest (VOIs) of different sizes and to evaluate the recovery of quantitative data. Images were reconstructed using Ordered-Subset Expectation Maximization (OSEM) algorithm, applying scatter and attenuation corrections of photons, both with and without the application of the Butterworth filter. In the end, a post-reconstruction algorithm implemented with MATLAB was used. The mean difference rate between the corrected image and the raw image of the medium-sized spheres (13mm, 17mm, and 22mm) gives an improvement rate of about 70% of the PVE correction for unfiltered images at 170.2 KBq/mL. This work showed that the application of the PVE correction method recovers lost activity concentration with accuracy.},
     year = {2023}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Partial Volume Effect (PVE) Correction in Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) Imaging
    AU  - Koffi N’guessan Placide Gabin Allangba
    AU  - Annick Kouame Koutouan
    AU  - Alessia Giuliano
    AU  - Zié Traoré
    AU  - Antonio Traino
    Y1  - 2023/09/06
    PY  - 2023
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.rst.20230903.11
    DO  - 10.11648/j.rst.20230903.11
    T2  - Radiation Science and Technology
    JF  - Radiation Science and Technology
    JO  - Radiation Science and Technology
    SP  - 26
    EP  - 35
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2575-5943
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.rst.20230903.11
    AB  - Quantitative analyses in Nuclear Medicine are essential, hence growing interest in algorithms that make nuclear medical data more reliable and accurate. The Partial Volume Effect (PVE) is the most important factor of loss of quantification in Nuclear Medicine, particularly for evaluation in regions of interest (ROIs) smaller than the Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM) of the Point Spread Function (PSF) of the imaging system. This study is focused on applying a post-reconstruction correction algorithm of PVE at regional level in SPECT imaging. After a quantitative evaluation of the sigma of the PSF of the SPECT imaging system, several experimental situations have been studied using the standard IEC NEMA Body phantom, which contains six spherical inserts that mimic lesions with diameters of 10 mm, 13 mm, 17 mm, 22 mm, 28 mm, and 37 mm. They were filled with 99mTc mixed with distilled water using a sphere-to-background activity concentration ratio of 10: 1. The experimental measurements were carried out with two activity concentrations of 99mTc: 170.2 KBq/mL and 451.0 KBq/mL. The PVE correction approach has been employed in this paper to correct PVE on spherical volumes of interest (VOIs) of different sizes and to evaluate the recovery of quantitative data. Images were reconstructed using Ordered-Subset Expectation Maximization (OSEM) algorithm, applying scatter and attenuation corrections of photons, both with and without the application of the Butterworth filter. In the end, a post-reconstruction algorithm implemented with MATLAB was used. The mean difference rate between the corrected image and the raw image of the medium-sized spheres (13mm, 17mm, and 22mm) gives an improvement rate of about 70% of the PVE correction for unfiltered images at 170.2 KBq/mL. This work showed that the application of the PVE correction method recovers lost activity concentration with accuracy.
    VL  - 9
    IS  - 3
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Laboratory of Environmental Science and Technology, University Jean Lorougnon Guédé, Daloa, Côte d’Ivoire

  • Laboratory of Biophysics and Nuclear Medicine (LBNM), University Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

  • Unit of Medical Physics, Pisa University Hospital “Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Pisana”, Pisa, Italy

  • Nuclear Physics and Radiation Protection Team, Laboratory of Material Sciences Environment and Solar Energy, University Félix Houphouet-Boigny, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

  • Unit of Medical Physics, Pisa University Hospital “Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Pisana”, Pisa, Italy

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