Physical phantom evaluation of EM-IntraSPECT (EMIS) algorithm for nonuniform attenuation correction in cardiac imaging

The purpose of this study was to evaluate performance of the EM-IntraSPECT (EMIS) algorithm for non-uniform attenuation correction in the chest. EMIS is a maximum-likelihood expectation maximization (MLEM) algorithm for simultaneously estimating SPECT emission and attenuation parameters from emission data alone. EMIS uses the activity within the patient as transmission tomography sources, with which attenuation coefficients can be estimated. A thorax phantom with a normal heart was used. The activity images reconstructed by EMIS were compared to images reconstructed using a conventional MLEM with a fixed uniform attenuation map. Uniformity of normal heart was improved with EMIS as compared to a conventional MLEM.

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