Evaluation of data acquisition geometries and strategies for myocardial SPECT imaging

This study evaluates myocardial SPECT images obtained from parallel-hole (PH) and fan-beam (FB) collimator geometries using both circular-orbit (CO) and noncircular-orbit (NCO) acquisitions. A newly developed 4D NURBS-based cardiac-torso (NCAT) was used to simulate the /sup 99m/Tc-sestamibi uptakes in human torso with myocardial defects in the left ventricular (LV) wall. Projection data including the effects of attenuation, collimator-detector response and scatter were generated using SIMSET Monte Carlo simulations. A large number of photon histories were generated such that the projection data were close to noise-free. Poisson noise fluctuations were then added to simulate the count densities found in clinical data.