The evaluation of noise reduction and resolution degradation in scintigraphic images due to the smoothing procedure

The decrease of the spatial resolution and the reduction of statistical error due to smoothing procedures with 'unity' matrices, applied to scintigraphic images were analyzed. A quantitative relation was obtained between the resolution decrease factor ksub(R) and the product of the error factor and the linear size of the picture element (m x ksub(f)). The numerical values of ksub(R) for the case of single smoothing with 'unity' matrices of any size were compared with those for an n-fold smoothing. It was shown that the latter is more advantageous, i.e. it gives lower values of the factor ksub(R) for the same values of (m x ksub(f)). (orig.)