Investigation of the relationship between linear attenuation coefficients and CT Hounsfield units using radionuclides for SPECT

Saxby Brown; Dale L Bailey; Kathy Willowson; Clive Baldock

doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2008.01.002

Investigation of the relationship between linear attenuation coefficients and CT Hounsfield units using radionuclides for SPECT

Appl Radiat Isot. 2008 Sep;66(9):1206-12. doi: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2008.01.002. Epub 2008 Jan 12.

Authors

Saxby Brown¹, Dale L Bailey, Kathy Willowson, Clive Baldock

Affiliation

¹ Institute of Medical Physics, School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. sbrown@physics.usyd.edu.au

PMID: 18662614
DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2008.01.002

Abstract

This study has investigated the relationship between linear attenuation coefficients (mu) and Hounsfield units (HUs) for six materials covering the range of values found clinically. Narrow-beam mu values were measured by performing radionuclide transmission scans using (99m)Tc, (123)I, (131)I, (201)Tl and (111)In. The mu values were compared to published data. The relationships between mu and HU were determined. These relationships can be used to convert computed tomography (CT) images to mu-maps for single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) attenuation correction.

MeSH terms

Phantoms, Imaging*
Plant Oils
Polymethyl Methacrylate
Radiometry / methods*
Radiopharmaceuticals*
Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon / methods*
Tomography, X-Ray Computed / methods*
Water
Wood

Substances

Plant Oils
Radiopharmaceuticals
Water
Polymethyl Methacrylate