Scatter correction in nuclear imaging by Spectral Iterative Deconvolution (SID)

The detection of Compton scattered photons results in the qualitative degradation and quantitative inaccuracy of planar and SPECT imaging. A new scatter correction method based on iterative energy spectra deconvolution is presented. From list mode or frame mode acquisition including energy(50-170 keV) for 99m Tc, a set of energy images is derived. The proposed SID technique extracts primary photons pixel per pixel by the use of an iterative deconvolution and a constraint on the computed spectrum. On each iteration, each spectrum is convolved by the energy detector response. The resulting spectrum is obtained by multiplying the recorded spectrum by the ratio of the last result and the convolved one. This algorithm automatically converges and can be done very quickly The process is fully automatic and the computing time performance allows its daily use for planar and SPECT examinations.