Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Monte Carlo evaluation of object shape effects in iodine-131 SPET tumor activity quantification

Dewaraja, Yuni K. ; Ljungberg, Michael LU and Koral, Kenneth F. (2001) In European Journal Of Nuclear Medicine 28(7). p.900-906
Abstract
In our clinical iodine-131 single-photon emission tomography (SPET) quantification for radioimmunotherapy, calibration and partial volume correction are based on measurements with phantoms containing spheres to simulate patient tumors even though real tumors are frequently nonspherical. In this study, Monte Carlo simulation was used to evaluate how object shape influences "spill-out" and "spill-in", which are major sources of quantification error associated with the poor spatial resolution of 131I SPET. Objects that varied in shape (spheres, cylinders, and an irregular structure) but were identical in activity and volume were simulated. Iterative reconstruction employed both attenuation and triple-energy-window scatter compensation. VOIs... (More)
In our clinical iodine-131 single-photon emission tomography (SPET) quantification for radioimmunotherapy, calibration and partial volume correction are based on measurements with phantoms containing spheres to simulate patient tumors even though real tumors are frequently nonspherical. In this study, Monte Carlo simulation was used to evaluate how object shape influences "spill-out" and "spill-in", which are major sources of quantification error associated with the poor spatial resolution of 131I SPET. Objects that varied in shape (spheres, cylinders, and an irregular structure) but were identical in activity and volume were simulated. Iterative reconstruction employed both attenuation and triple-energy-window scatter compensation. VOIs were defined in the reconstructed images both using physical boundaries and using expanded boundaries to allow for the limited resolution. When physical boundaries were used, both spill-out and spill-in were more significant for nonspherical structures than for spherical structures. Over the range of object volumes (50-200 ml) and at all background levels, VOI counts in cylinders were lower than VOI counts in spheres. This underestimation increased with decrease in object size (for the cold background -18% at 200 ml and -39% at 50 ml). It also decreased with increase in background activity because spill-in partially compensated for spill-out. It was shown that with a VOI larger than physical size, the results are independent of object shape and size only in the case of cold background. Activity quantification was carried out using a procedure similar to that used in our clinic. Quantification of nonspherical objects was improved by simple sphere-based partial volume correction, but the error was still large in some cases (for example, -39% for a 50-ml cylinder in a cold background and -35% for a 200-ml irregular structure defined on the basis of a typical tumor outlined on an X-ray computed tomography scan of a patient with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma). Partial volume correction by patient-specific Monte Carlo simulation may provide better quantification accuracy. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Single-photon emission tomography, Iodine-131 imaging, Monte Carlo, Partial volume effect, Quantification
in
European Journal Of Nuclear Medicine
volume
28
issue
7
pages
900 - 906
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • pmid:11504087
  • scopus:0034922457
ISSN
1432-105X
DOI
10.1007/s002590100551
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
d949dec2-eb4a-4154-9401-29cc597fd181 (old id 1120023)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 11:36:28
date last changed
2022-01-26 07:31:58
@article{d949dec2-eb4a-4154-9401-29cc597fd181,
  abstract     = {{In our clinical iodine-131 single-photon emission tomography (SPET) quantification for radioimmunotherapy, calibration and partial volume correction are based on measurements with phantoms containing spheres to simulate patient tumors even though real tumors are frequently nonspherical. In this study, Monte Carlo simulation was used to evaluate how object shape influences "spill-out" and "spill-in", which are major sources of quantification error associated with the poor spatial resolution of 131I SPET. Objects that varied in shape (spheres, cylinders, and an irregular structure) but were identical in activity and volume were simulated. Iterative reconstruction employed both attenuation and triple-energy-window scatter compensation. VOIs were defined in the reconstructed images both using physical boundaries and using expanded boundaries to allow for the limited resolution. When physical boundaries were used, both spill-out and spill-in were more significant for nonspherical structures than for spherical structures. Over the range of object volumes (50-200 ml) and at all background levels, VOI counts in cylinders were lower than VOI counts in spheres. This underestimation increased with decrease in object size (for the cold background -18% at 200 ml and -39% at 50 ml). It also decreased with increase in background activity because spill-in partially compensated for spill-out. It was shown that with a VOI larger than physical size, the results are independent of object shape and size only in the case of cold background. Activity quantification was carried out using a procedure similar to that used in our clinic. Quantification of nonspherical objects was improved by simple sphere-based partial volume correction, but the error was still large in some cases (for example, -39% for a 50-ml cylinder in a cold background and -35% for a 200-ml irregular structure defined on the basis of a typical tumor outlined on an X-ray computed tomography scan of a patient with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma). Partial volume correction by patient-specific Monte Carlo simulation may provide better quantification accuracy.}},
  author       = {{Dewaraja, Yuni K. and Ljungberg, Michael and Koral, Kenneth F.}},
  issn         = {{1432-105X}},
  keywords     = {{Single-photon emission tomography; Iodine-131 imaging; Monte Carlo; Partial volume effect; Quantification}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{7}},
  pages        = {{900--906}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{European Journal Of Nuclear Medicine}},
  title        = {{Monte Carlo evaluation of object shape effects in iodine-131 SPET tumor activity quantification}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s002590100551}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s002590100551}},
  volume       = {{28}},
  year         = {{2001}},
}