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SPECT Image Noise Power: Effects of Nonstationary Projection Noise and Attenuation Compensation

Biomedical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Massachusetts
Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
Abteilung Nuklearmedizin, Universitätsklinik Essen, Essen, W. Germany

Correspondence: For reprints contact: Stephen C. Moore, PhD, Biomedical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 100 Institute Rd., Worcester, MA 01609.

ABSTRACT

The effects of nonstationary projection noise and attenuation compensation are included in a theoretic calculation of the radial noise power spectrum (NPS) of single photon emission computed tomographic (SPECT) images. The nonstationary projection noise is shown to cause a relatively large d.c. component in the NPS, especially for small objects; whereas, attenuation compensation increases the total noise variance while only changing the d.c. component slightly. The theoretic calculation agrees well with a radial NPS estimated from 1,250 SPECT images simulated from projections of random Gaussian noise, even though the effects of discrete data collection and reconstruction were not included in the theoretical model.