Evaluation of an OSEM-based PVC method for SPECT with clinical data

Partial volume correction (PVC) can compensate for cross-talk between different anatomical regions in images from a functional imaging system with poor spatial resolution, such as PET or SPECT, by utilizing data from a high-resolution structural imaging modality, such as CT or MRI. We have developed a new PVC method for SPECT, and here we present an evaluation of this method using clinical data from [I-123]-FP-CIT (DATscan) studies. PVC was performed based on MRI data, which were segmented and co-registered to the SPECT data. The correction was applied during OSEM reconstruction, taking into account the distance dependent resolution of the SPECT system. We compared our new method (OSEM-PVC) with OSEM reconstruction with resolution recovery (OSEM-RR). Qualitatively, OSEM-PVC resulted in images with visually improved structural definition and, quantitatively, it gave similar contrast as OSEM-RR but lower intra-region variability.