Dual energy attenuation correction for single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)

Absorption of gamma rays by matter causes the well known attenuation artifacts in SPECT. In this paper, the authors investigate a technique in which projections acquired at two different energies are used. The projections resulting from the two energies are manipulated to extract the true radioisotope distribution within the slice reducing the attenuation problems. Simulation results are presented for different phantoms investigating the amount of artifacts with and without the correction. It is shown that the dual energy technique can be used in obtaining accurate SPECT images with very little attenuation artifacts