APPLICATIONS OF TECHNOLOGY:
- Cardiac imaging
- Oncology
- Image reconstruction in computed tomography software
ADVANTAGES:
- Enhances image quality in SPECT
- Simplicity – affords manual or automatic adjustment for patient motion
- Can reduce scanning time, avoid repeat scans
- Can be used with any dedicated or scanner vendor-provided reconstruction software
- A plug-in for publicly available and free image reconstruction software
ABSTRACT:
Efficient medical imaging is often hampered by the effects of subtle movements by patients undergoing lengthy scans. A team of Berkeley Lab researchers led by Rostyslav Buchko and Debasis Mitra (now with the Florida Institute of Technology) has developed a software tool that dramatically improves motion detection and corrects for involuntary respiratory patient motion. The software, Sinocor, analyzes and corrects the data generated by Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT), a radionuclide imaging technology widely used in for the diagnosis of cardiac disease, cancers, and other serious health conditions.
Sinocor is a simple plug-in to ImageJ, an open-source Java-based image-processing program widely used to produce sinograms. (Sinograms are the preliminary images based on raw data from SPECT scans that are further refined and compiled, typically hours or days later, to produce the 3-D images radiologists analyze.) The mathematically based software algorithm rapidly identifies irregular motion in initial sinogram data, flags it for a technician before a scan is completed, and cleans it up prior to the reconstruction of the final 3-D image.
Involuntary movements caused by a cough or sudden movement by patients during lengthy scans (30 minutes to an hour) can render sinogram data unusable. Since injected radiological imaging agents are typically employed in SPECT, a timely do-over scan may not be advisable or possible. Sinocor is a simple and readily accessible solution to a common problem in SPECT imaging, and its adoption can save time, money, patient discomfort, and human lives.
DEVELOPMENT STAGE: Functional prototype.
STATUS: Available for licensing or collaborative research. Source code will be provided at no cost to academic institutions.
SEE THESE OTHER BERKELEY LAB TECHNOLOGIES IN THIS FIELD:
Software for Dynamic Imaging with SPECT, CR-3010
REFERENCE NUMBER: CR-3116