Contributions of statistical noise to spatial heterogeneity of PET images of pulmonary function

Jose Gabriel Venegas; Steven Treppo; Srboljub Mijailovich

doi:10.1117/12.174410

1 May 1994 Contributions of statistical noise to spatial heterogeneity of PET images of pulmonary function

Jose Gabriel Venegas, Steven Treppo, Srboljub Mijailovich

Proceedings Volume 2168, Medical Imaging 1994: Physiology and Function from Multidimensional Images; (1994) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.174410
Event: Medical Imaging 1994, 1994, Newport Beach, CA, United States

Abstract

We have recently developed methodologies to assess the local distributions of alveolar ventilation and pulmonary perfusion using positron emission tomography (PET) with ¹³NN gas as a tracer. In order to quantify the true regional heterogeneity in lung function from these images, it was important to assess the contributions of noise caused by finite count statistics and by imaging artifacts. To characterize these artifacts we collected multiple images with different total number of counts from a uniform phantom labeled with ¹¹CO₂ and assessed their heterogeneity as the mean normalized variance of the pixel by pixel data. We developed a novel disc phantom made of open cell foam with a density comparable to that of the lungs. Images of this phantom were reconstructed with a Hanning filter set for different resolution lengths (L). The mean normalized variance of these images was found to closely follow a linear relationship with the inverse of the average number of counts per pixel and L^-3 having an intercept that represented the heterogeneity caused by imaging and reconstruction artifacts.

Citation Download Citation

Jose Gabriel Venegas, Steven Treppo, and Srboljub Mijailovich "Contributions of statistical noise to spatial heterogeneity of PET images of pulmonary function", Proc. SPIE 2168, Medical Imaging 1994: Physiology and Function from Multidimensional Images, (1 May 1994); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.174410

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