COMPUTATIONAL MODEL OF A GAMMA CAMERA AS CLINICAL IMAGE SIMULATOR

Abstract

Monte Carlo-based simulations allow to model the acquisition of Nuclear Medicine images. The aim of this work is to determine if SIMIND MC code is capable of accurately simulating the 99mTc emission images acquired using a General Electric SPECT equipment, model Discovery NM 630. To this end, a gamma camera was computationally configured with the technical specifications of the equipment of interest and the quality controls of uniformity, spatial resolution, sensitivity, and maximum count rate were evaluated in the simulated gamma camera. Real and simulated uniformity values displayed percentage differences of 4.3% (UFOV) and 0.4% (CFOV) and the spatial resolution and extrinsic sensitivity values using a general-purpose collimator were of 4.6% and 2.6%, respectively. The work verified the veracity of the proposed computational model for its use as a clinical imaging simulator.