Date of Award
2006
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science
Program
Medical Biophysics
Supervisor
Glenn Wells, Ph. D.
Second Advisor
David Holdsworth, Ph. D.
Third Advisor
Robert Stodilka, Ph. D.
Abstract
Wrist injuries account for over 750 000 visits to the hospital each year. Better imaging techniques are required to properly diagnose these injuries. Planar nuclear medicine offers a high sensitivity for fracture detection, but low specificity. Improving resolution could lead to better specificity. We hypothesize that wrist SPECT resolution can be improved by using pinhole collimators and by incorporating anatomical prior information. Phantom experiments have shown that a 3mm single-pinhole system can achieve a 4mm resolution at clinical count levels, but a 3mm resolution required 4-times as many counts. Computer simulations showed that by incorporating CT anatomical prior information a 4.6mm FWHM resolution was measured at 4 million counts, which is a 10% improvement to current iterative reconstruction techniques. These results demonstrated that pinhole collimation or CT prior information, which is now possible with SPECT/CT canneras can improve spatial resolution, however, current count levels are a limiting factor.
Recommended Citation
Sabondiian, Eric, "IMPROVING RESOLUTION IN WRIST SPECT WITH CONVERGING COLLIMATORS AND CT ANATOMICAL PRIORS" (2006). Digitized Theses. 4940.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/digitizedtheses/4940