Conjugate counting applied to the scintigraphic quantification of radionuclide distributions (scintimetry)

Geometric effects and tissue attenuation, being problems in metabolic and dosimetry studies can be overcome by appropriate selection of detector arrangement, measurement technique and algorithm. The authors performed conjugate counting on phantoms with a single detector scintillation camera. The results of these phantom studies are presented in this paper. They show that absolute quantification is possible with an error smaller than 10%. Further on a computer program is described which performs all the image handling and data processing. Considering all physical and technical problems arising with emission tomography, conjugate counting remains a valuable and valid technique which requires no special instrumentation, is easy to perform and provides data of reasonable accuracy. (Auth.)