Attenuation Correction Using SPECT Emission Data Only

A major step towards quantitative SPECT imaging may be achieved if attenuation, scatter and blurring effects are accounted for in the reconstruction process. Here we consider an approach which simultaneously estimates the unknown attenuation coefficient and the emission source using the emission data only. This leads to an inverse mathematical problem which could no longer be solved via iterative procedures like the well-known EM-algorithm. Instead, a regularization approach based on nonlinear optimization techniques is used. We present a successful strategy of the analytic type, and we test it in a simulated case study.