Should scatter be corrected in both transmission and emission data for accurate quantitation in cardiac SPET?
Ideally, reliable quantitation in single-photon emission tomography (SPET) requires both emission and transmission data to be scatter free. Although scatter in emission data has been extensively studied, it is not well known how scatter in transmission data affects relative and absolute quantitation in reconstructed images. We studied SPET quantitative accuracy for different amounts of scatter in emission and transmission data using a Utah phantom and a cardiac Data Spectrum phantom including different attenuating media. Acquisitions over 180 degrees were considered and three projection sets were derived: 20% images and Jaszczak and triple-energy-window scatter-corrected projections. Transmission data were acquired using gadolinium-153 line sources in a 90-110 keV window using a narrow or wide scanning window. The transmission scans were performed either simultaneously with the emission acquisition or 24 h later. Transmission maps were reconstructed using filtered backprojection and mu