Improving process for attenuation scintigraphic images

Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) is a commonly used examination nowadays. Nevertheless, the problem of attenuation of the images provided, has been the subject of much work. Indeed, attenuation introduces biases in the relative quantification of the signal. These biases lead to well-known artefacts. In this paper, we limit attention to the problem of attenuation. Without attenuation correction, the deeper the structures, the more its activity is underestimated. Even in healthy patients, lower activity can be observed [1]. Many methods have been proposed in the literature, some of them are now available on cameras. In addition, transmission acquisition devices have been developed and marketed to measure the attenuation map. As a result, these devices improve the quality of corrections. The aim of this work is to correct the attenuation of scintigraphic images after the reconstruction. For this, we present an analytical method using the non-uniform attenuation coefficient map. The algorithm is tested on images on the gamma camera using the DICOM format.